Code Switch How your vote became your identity
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Apr 11, 2026 Lilliana Mason, political scientist and author who studies political identity, explains how party affiliation became a mega-identity. She describes how party labels shape views on race, religion, and policy. The conversation covers partisan sorting, racial spillover after Obama's presidency, rising anti-Muslim rhetoric, and how younger generations relate to party identity.
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What Mega Identity Means For Voting
- Party identity has become a megastructure that wraps racial, religious, and other identities into election outcomes.
- Mason calls this "mega identity": when party wins or losses feel like wins or losses for all linked social identities.
Racial Spillover Makes Nonracial Issues Racial
- Racial spillover links once-unrelated policies to racial attitudes.
- Michael Tesler's work shows after Obama, positions on healthcare began to predict views on policing and other racialized issues.
How Parties Realigned Around Race And Religion
- Partisan sorting accelerated after 1960s civil rights shifts and evangelical political mobilization.
- Southern Democrats gradually became Republicans over a generation as identities realigned with party stances on civil rights.