One teensy problem with your thesis is that prominent Democrats almost never talk about identity whereas Republicans yammer about it constantly.

It might be better for Democrats if they talked about identity *more*, and actually contested the caricatures imposed on them unilaterally by Republicans.

Hope you’re right. As of now, it is increasingly looking like, as Bill McKibben puts it, the US is on track to become a kind of national Colonial Williamsburg where tourists visit to see how people used to live.

As a Canadian, I don’t want our country held back by its industrial ties to MAGALand.

“In the face of Trump’s brutal attack on Canadian auto workers and the environment, building out our own globally connected EV manufacturing sector – from mining critical minerals, refining them into battery components and assembling vehicles – has become existentially important.”

“It’ll turn North America’s tightly integrated auto industry into an island with its own unique ecosystem, cut off from advances being made elsewhere, making cars that are uncompetitive anywhere but here.”

“If the Big Three American automakers–Stellantis, Ford and GM–continue to fall behind international rivals on EVs, particularly those from China, the only way for Trump to protect them without massive public spending will be for America to put up bigger tariff walls and keep out foreign competition.

*SOME experts