Perhaps most hopeful of all, the first studies of the results show signs of a shift away from identity politics, in which voters lump together by caste or religion to back one of their own.

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Rather than focus on health care or Iraq, as previous debates have, the moderators threw an odd bag of unexpected identity-politics questions at the candidates for a full hour, before turning to high-minded policy.

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Yet some voters are beginning to drift away from the rigid identity politics of old.

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But he is also Arab-American, which makes him a nonwhite minority by the conventions of contemporary identity politics.

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Identity politics revolve around the narrative of victimization.

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For adherents to identity politics, the victim is not a person, but a member of a privileged victim group.

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And, equally, I think, among the young men who are taken to the more extremist form of politics, I think there's an identity issue there, too.

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Likewise, correcting the overwhelmingly white complexion of the conservative base will require more than just talking to everyone as individuals and rejecting identity politics.

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