In many ways democrats are moving faster than the changes we re seeing as a country while republicans have been slower to keep pace, so there you go, more polarization. between 1997 and 2017, the country has become a lot more diverse with the white population now at 69%. that s a 14-point drop. democrats are outpacing that national average. only 59% of voters who identify with the democratic party are white, while republicans still struggle on the diversity front. 83% of republicans are white. now, on college education, in 2017 a full third of americans had college degrees. that was up eight points from 1997. democrats here too exceed the national average. 39% of democrats are college educated while republicans lag behind with just 28% of republicans being college educated. now, the country is also a bit less religious overall with nearly a quarter of americans saying they don t affiliate with any religion. that s a 16-point jump in sort of secularism in the last 20 years. for democrats, a full third do