american identity are being thrust center stage by both parties as the 2020 election heats up. what is driving that? >> well, i think we have an action/reaction cycle where donald trump is appealing to white racial resentments more overtly, more openly than any national figure in either party since george wallace in 1968, and partly in response to the changing nature of the democratic base and coalition, i think the democratic candidates are clearly talking more explicitly about the idea of systemic racism or systematic racism or institutional segregation than any democratic candidate really since i've covered national politics in 1984. >> and even obama or clinton? >> i think much more than obama or clinton. hillary clinton dipped her toe into those kind of arguments. but when you hear the kinds of things that beto o'rourke, for example, said at the last democratic debate in houston, where he argued that the introduction of slavery more than the declaration of independence was in essence the