If you think tensions between the Left and the Right are going to fizzle out any time soon, think again. Recent polling hints that the mutual animosity between the political persuasions is becoming ingrained in individuals’ identities.
A poll released this week showed that an alarming number of voters hold their politics as central to their identities. Modern politics has become more tribalistic and heated than sports rivalries these days. In sports, fans root for the rival to lose. In politics, partisans root for the rival to be destroyed. It’s not just enough to beat them — you must imprison them, defame them, deplatform them, debank them, or even kill them. And while this behavior has mostly come from the Left in America, it’s not exclusive to them.
The Charlie Kirk assassination was a stunning revelation to conservatives: If liberals will cheer on the brutal murder of a “common-sense” conservative like Kirk, then how would they react to someone like me being killed? It became personal for the Right. Anecdotally speaking, most conservatives are just as right-leaning as, if not more than, Kirk was. If he deserved to die for his views, then why not the rest of us?
‘WHO CARES’ ABOUT SYSTEMIC RACISM WHEN IT BENEFITS MINORITIES?
Forty-four percent of those who consider themselves to be “very liberal” consider politics to be “extremely” important to their personal identities, according to Echelon Insights’s April 2026 Voter Omnibus. The “very liberal” camp is the largest on the Left. The same trend is seen on the Right, to a lesser extent, with 34% of those who identify as “very conservative” holding politics as “extremely” important to their identities, with the “very conservative” camp also being the largest group on the Right.
When people make politics their identity, they take a difference of opinion as a personal attack. Don’t like affirmative action? You must hate black people. Don’t like abortion? You must hate women. Don’t want LGBT propaganda in schools? You must hate gay and transgender people. Don’t like the welfare state? You must hate poor people. You like having safe and secure borders, and the ability to vet those coming in and select productive members of society to join our communities? You clearly hate Mexicans.
Framing every political issue as an existential moral crisis, where you are the hero trying to save the oppressed by any means necessary and your opponent is the sadistic villain trying to hurt people, is exactly how the Left created this mess. The Right is now playing catch-up.
The Left galvanizes coalitions by deceiving each sub-group into believing they’re oppressed on the basis of their race, sex, sexual preference, mental illness, immigration status, age, and disability. They’ve apparently taken this to the extreme, with the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center being indicted for allegedly “manufacturing” racism by funneling donations to white supremacist groups. The Right, on the other hand, is increasingly becoming the party of the pissed-off straight white “cis” male, fed up with hearing lectures about privilege from blue-haired weirdos with gender studies degrees. And while that’s more valid than nonsensical intersectionality, there is a market for grifters like Andrew Tate to exploit this energy for profit.
FOR THE LEFT, SOME LIVES ARE APPARENTLY MORE VALUABLE THAN OTHERS
The solution to this modern political hostility is simple: People need to touch grass and get off the political battle royale that is social media. The algorithm rewards engagement, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. Common sense doesn’t get a major reaction, but victimhood is like catnip for chronically online outrage addicts.
Forming policy opinions based on victim mentality, whether on the Left or the Right, is not the answer. Because when people’s identities are politicized, people politicize their identities. And when people politicize their identities, mere disagreement becomes personal vitriol.