By John Yarmuth, Kentucky Lantern · July 7, 2026

Almost 20 years ago, Kentucky native Bill Bishop wrote “The Big Sort,” a very prescient book that provided an analysis of how Americans were organizing their lives according to their political identities. They were choosing where to live, work, and play based on their desire to be among people who shared their political philosophy. As our politics were becoming more polarized, Americans were manifesting their political alignment with their lifestyle decisions. 

For several years now I have noticed something else that has changed about our country. For reasons I have been unsuccessfully trying to figure out, many Americans have made their political partisan preference a primary element of their personal identity. 

When I was a younger person, and even as an adult, my political affiliation would have been far down the list of ways that I identified myself. Around Kentucky, whether you were a University of Kentucky or University of Louisville sports fan would have been high on the list. Obviously people’s religious affiliations, their high school or college backgrounds, and their careers would have come before whether they were Democrat or Republican.

Not so today.

These days a lot of people think of themselves first and foremost as wearing red or blue jerseys, and not the athletic kinds. Also, they do that without necessarily agreeing with the philosophical positions of their particular party. Present day voters — I would argue this is more true, but not exclusively so, of Republicans — somehow choose their party affiliation on some basis other than the political positions they believe in. 

I now have a theory of why this is happening. Because of social media, and the increasing isolation of so many Americans, political participation has also become our socialization mechanism. We can get on our phones or our computers, and it is the equivalent of going to a bar, a neighborhood pot luck dinner, or a church social. We go there to meet and “chat” with likeminded individuals and feel like we are among friends. Unfortunately, part of that socialization dynamic includes feeling superior to the other party. It’s become the political Crips and Bloods, almost with the same degree of baselessness. 

Years ago I was at a dinner party of 14 people. Three of us identified as liberals, the rest as conservatives. Those eleven were all outdoors types; they were hunters and/or fishers, along with their spouses. I asked them if they believed it was okay for corporations to exploit the environment for profit. They all said no. I asked if they believed that every child was entitled to a quality education. They all said yes. I asked if everyone is entitled to affordable, quality healthcare. Again they all said yes. Then I asked them why they considered themselves politically conservative. It was clear that they considered themselves to be conservatives because they felt comfortable identifying that way, not necessarily because they held any particular political positions. And I dare say their political identification was one of the least important parts of their lives. 

Here’s more evidence that our political identities are psychological and not philosophical. During the last Kentucky gubernatorial campaign in 2023, voters were polled on about a dozen issues. On every one but one — immigration— voters in the Commonwealth agreed by large majorities with what I would describe as the Democratic or liberal position. Even support for stronger gun safety laws received majority support. And yet we have a Kentucky House with a Republican super majority and a Senate that is now 32 to 6 Republican. How is that possible?

In 2004, the legendary book “What’s the Matter with Kansas” tried to analyze why so many Americans vote against their own financial interests. It theorized that many voters had begun to emphasize cultural issues rather than economic ones when deciding their votes. In effect, author Thomas Frank argued it was no longer “the economy, stupid.” 

Things haven’t changed that much in the past 20 years, but it’s clear that many, if not most, voters cast their ballots for reasons that are not related to the policy implications of their choices, and that dynamic  has serious repercussions for our democracy. 

If all that matters to us is whether our “teams” win elections, candidates will campaign accordingly, and voters will never be satisfied with the governments they elect.