I don’t see more ideological diversity on the right. Quite the opposite. The Democrats’ coalition spans everyone from centrists to the far left. That’s reflected in the composition of the Democratic caucus in Congress, and it’s also apparent from the split between moderates and progressives in presidential primaries, contests that the moderates have consistently won I might add.

But there are pretty much no moderate conservatives left in Congress. Republican presidential primaries aren’t a contest. Trump ran away with the last one, and he’ll run away with this one, maybe even from a jail cell. Even his opponents can’t risk disagreeing with him.

You find the same pattern in media consumption habits. Conservatives get their news from fewer sources, and those sources tend to agree on most issues.

I grew up in a conservative Catholic household. I’ve seen the transformation, the homogenization, of previously distinct demographics to forge a conservative consensus. These days the better predictor of a person’s beliefs isn’t the religion he subscribes to but the place he lives. My Catholic family and their Protestant neighbors get their politics from their rural Missouri community, not the Vatican, the Bible, or any of that. I’m sure the fact that they’re all white isn’t a coincidence.