The electoral system is losing legitimacy as increasingly no one agrees on the basic rules of the game, and views victory by the other side as illegitimate by definition.

There are two problems with his analysis. First, while he’s correct that the electoral system is increasingly losing legitimacy, it’s not a one-sided affair. Clintonistas spent years claiming Trump’s victory was only due to Russian collusion. Second, the most basic conflict in the US is over existential values, not economic ones, although economic conflict is serious as well. The Red Tribe are believers in the traditional American civil religion and/traditional religion, and the Blue Tribe are “citizens of the world” cosmopolitans, Enlightenment rationalists, or adherents of “liberal theology.” The existential conflicts can’t be glossed over with welfare. Welfare economics has nothing to do with transgender rights, critical race theory, BLM, guns, abortion, gay marriage, climate change, Confederate monuments, mask/vaccine mandates, immigration, policing, criminal justice, and the multiplicity of other issues that represent the existential conflict that is going on.

I’ve asked social democrats this many times: “Which of your culture war issues would you be willing to compromise on or give up entirely in order to win support among the socially conservative sectors of the working class for your economic views?” Their answers almost always amount to “zero” or “next to zero.” To which I respond: “And the other side feels the same way.”I’ve asked social democrats this many times: “Which of your culture war issues would you be willing to compromise on or give up entirely in order to win support among the socially conservative sectors of the working class for your economic views?” Their answers almost always amount to “zero” or “next to zero.” To which I respond: “And the other side feels the same way.”

Poll Shows That Americans Are Turning Against Democracy