Political disputes are about identity because one side keeps insisting on making them about identity. When you attack peoples’ livelihoods based on their identity (e.g. threatening the jobs of transgender people in the military), you can’t complain when people get tribal. When you have police departments that target one group based on skin color, you can’t be surprised when they get tribal. Tribalism is how you protect yourself from threats to yourself and your family. Many people feel like they’re under attack, and when you’re under attack you don’t care about ideas, values, or policy.

I’ve seeing it happen before my eyes over the last 20 years. Where I grew up, lots of rich Indians and Middle Eastern people were Republicans. Identity politics wasn’t a thing. No longer. The current political climate is forcing people to pick sides, and people aren’t stupid—they’ll pick sides along tribal lines. You might not agree with your tribe, but you can trust them not to turn on you when things go sideways.