America’s future is Republican — but not for the reason you may think

America recently turned 250, an impressive achievement for a country that began with an argument over taxes and quickly escalated to gunfire. Americans have been arguing ever since. The more interesting question today isn’t whether they’ll continue, but which kinds of disagreement a political coalition can actually survive.

A recent analysis by political scientists Jeremy Pope and Michael Barber at Brigham Young University offers a revealing answer. Using data from the Cooperative Election Study, they examined where Republican and Democrat voters agree with one another — and where the coalitions begin to fracture.

One disagreement is ultimately about numbers. The other concerns who people are, what they believe, and what they owe to one another.

Republicans hold together remarkably well on culture. Whether a GOP voter has a