The decline of interparty marriage

More than half of all Republicans won't marry a Democrat.

Last week, some striking data emerged into the political blogosphere, showing that inter-party marriage has become increasingly frowned-upon on both sides of the aisle, but more so on the Republican side. What this shows, of course, is not only that both sides are increasingly upset by the idea of interparty marriage, but also that Republicans are significantly more upset (roughly 50 percent to 30 percent). And there was much fulminating about why--assuming the survey data are correct--this might be the case.

It's not at all hard to understand at all. Obama got only 39 percent of the white vote in 2012. He wouldn't get 30 percent today. The Republicans are increasingly the party of White Christian America. The Democrats are increasingly the party of Brown and White Secular America. This supposed distaste for interparty marriage has little to do with politics and more to do with a distaste for interracial marriage and interreligious marriage.

It's not because of psychological differences or the supposed openness of liberals - anyone who has ever spoken to an American liberal knows there is no more close-minded creature on the planet - but because it is primarily lower-status white men and women who don't shirk at marrying Asians, Hispanics, and Africans.

This sudden decline in interparty marriage may be an early sign of America's white population finally beginning to realize that the "melting pot" was always a myth and it is a separate nation unto itself in what has become, post-1965, a multiethnic country.