This chapter demonstrates how the increased political polarization of American national politics is connected to stronger connections over the past generation between partisan identification and feelings about the racial, gender, and class groups associated with the parties. greater correlations between personal identity and partisan identification over the past generation. This means that the stakes of Many national political debates at the national level are no longer simply debates about transcend simple policy disagreements because they are , but are deeply entwined with race, gender and other components of personal identity. This finding reinforces Barnes and Williamson’s contention that national politics is largely stuck in stalemate and that there may be more promise for building consensus starting (but not ending) at more local levels of politics.