Sectarian politics...hadn't thought of it quite like that, but I think you're right about that being what the politics in the U.S. are heading toward, if they're not there already. For how much of what's happening is actually about what we've normally thought of as political goals and policies, and how much is about political identity? One party pretty much wants to govern, but the other only wishes to rule, having no plan for governing beyond "owning" a certain group of folks and pretty much just doing as it pleases otherwise. There are no doubt folks cut from that same bolt of cloth on the other side of the divide, but, at least for now, they seem to be much fewer in numbers and influence on their party. But as with anything else, that can always change.
Sectarian politics...hadn't thought of it quite like that, but I think you're right about that being what the politics in the U.S. are heading toward, if they're not there already. For how much of what's happening is actually about what we've normally thought of as political goals and policies, and how much is about political identity? One party pretty much wants to govern, but the other only wishes to rule, having no plan for governing beyond "owning" a certain group of folks and pretty much just doing as it pleases otherwise. There are no doubt folks cut from that same bolt of cloth on the other side of the divide, but, at least for now, they seem to be much fewer in numbers and influence on their party. But as with anything else, that can always change.