Does Realignment Just Reflect Underlying Clusters Of Norms?

Color me skeptical. I don't believe that polarization at the grass roots was nearly as polarized forty years ago as it is today.

We develop a new method to endogenously partition society into groups based on homophily in values. The between-group differentiation that results from this partition provides a novel measure of latent polarization in society. For the last forty years, the degree of latent polarization of the U.S. public has been high and relatively stable. In contrast, the degree of partisan polarization between voters of the two main political parties steadily increased since the 1990s, and is now converging toward that of underlying values-based clusters. Growing partisan polarization in the U.S. is a reflection of partisan views becoming increasingly aligned with the main values-based clusters in society.

Klaus Desmet, Ignacio Ortuno-Ortin, Romain Wacziarg, "Latent Polarization" (May 2024).