How your vote became your identity

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you vote Republican or Democrat? And why does that answer reveal so much about the rest of who you are? We talk to political scientist Lilliana Mason about how party affiliation has become a “mega-identity” — a lens through which we see all other aspects of identity — and how that shapes views on race, political behavior, and so much more.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	What's good, y'all? You're listening to Code Switch from NPR. I'm Gene Demby.
0:06.4	And I'm BA Parker.
0:08.1	Parker. You may have missed this, like, with the tsunami of everything else happening in the world right now.
0:14.5	But I want to talk to you about the Sharia-free America Caucus.
0:19.0	What exactly is that?
0:20.8	So, okay, in late December, this congressman from Texas named Keith Self started a new caucus
0:27.1	in Congress that he said he was forming to keep out the influence of Sharia law in the United
0:33.8	States.
0:34.6	Sharia poses a unique and profound danger.
0:38.6	It is far more than a personal faith.
0:41.6	It is a comprehensive system of governance, culture, and domination that enforces submission
0:47.9	through violence.
0:49.9	What does he think Sharia law is?
0:52.6	Man, I don't know.
0:53.7	But the paperwork on the creation of this caucus from Kisov,
0:56.9	it's kind of vague on what Sharia entails,
0:59.3	but it's clear from his own words
1:01.7	that he sees the existence of Muslims in America
1:05.8	as evidence of creeping Islamist indoctrination.
1:09.4	All cultures are not morally equivalent,
1:13.1	whereas Christianity is the religion of peace,
1:18.1	of reconciliation of love.
	...

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