Political scientist Eli Finkel and his colleagues have documented what they call the rise of “political sectarianism.” Sectarianism is “the tendency to adopt a moralized identification with one political group and against another.”
Political sectarianism, Finkel argues, “consists of three core ingredients: othering—the tendency to view opposing partisans as essentially different or alien to oneself; aversion—the tendency to dislike and distrust opposing partisans; and moralization—the tendency to view opposing partisans as iniquitous.”
Finkel says it “is the confluence of these ingredients that makes sectarianism so corrosive in the political sphere. Viewing opposing partisans as different, or even as dislikable or immoral, may not be problematic in isolation. But when all three converge, political losses can feel like existential threats that must be averted—whatever the cost.”
Losses that “must be averted-whatever the cost” is one of the reasons why the Big Lie gained so much traction among Trump supporters.