Quotes About Cleavages

These statements of belief are consonant with the assumption of pluralist thought that if people do not exclusively identify themselves with a single category—such as class, occupation, or system of belief—political cleavages will be limited in intensity.

The nationalistic, patriotic, and "originalist" ideology being hawked by Republicans promotes a myth of national unity, consensus, that obscures real cleavages in order to substitute synthetic ones ("the culture wars," school vouchers, abortion) that leave power relationships unchallenged.