“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.” – Barack Obama, 2004 DNC address

“What if we were wrong? Maybe we pushed too far. Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.” These were the words reportedly spoken by Barack Obama to aides shortly after the 2016 presidential election.

Uttered on this particular occasion, Obama’s world-weary remark was most certainly that of an outgoing president frustrated in defeat. But I believe it was also the earnest expression of an ideology he shares with many of Washington’s most powerful and influential figures, whatever their professed party allegiance: namely, that there is a phenomenon called “tribalism” (or alternatively, “partisanship”) that is needlessly dividing the country and obstructing progress — a march towards some common interest that presumably consists of its negation.