The View | How race and identity divide America: the Republican transformation

Although race and identity have emerged as the principal dividing line between the main American political parties, both the Republican and Democratic parties are also deeply divided internally.

The Democratic Party is socially liberal; its leadership is pro-business, but it has a broad-based insurgent progressive wing. The Republican Party is socially conservative; its leadership is pro-market, but has a dominant white working-class support base.

Hillary Clinton, a Washington insider and seasoned political operator, represents the pro-business establishment leadership of the Democratic Party. Donald Trump, an outsider and a natural populist authoritarian, represents grassroots Republican voters, but not the Republican leadership.

Sentiment against insiders, the elites and the establishment runs strong in America today. So who will win?

If voters do not cross party lines, then the election outcome will be a close call. The Republican grassroots, which gave the party majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives during Obama’s administration, is still strong and is driving the success of Trump.

This turn of events is all the more remarkable when you consider how the Republican Party began its existence: fighting against the expansion of slavery under Abraham Lincoln.