A Sense of Shared Identity
The other dominant lesson that emerged from our focus groups and provides critical in- sight into the thinking of today's partisan Republican voters is their clear sense of shared identity. In our focus group discussions, we quickly noted how they routinely used plural first- person pronouns to describe a group of individuals (including all those in the room but extending far beyond those walls) who share a set of beliefs, knowledge, and commitment to oppose Obama that sets them apart from the majority of the country. Democrats may joke that Republi- cans seem to live on a different planet sometimes, but in some important ways, these Republi- cans would happily agree.