Barack Obama and the nationalization of electoral politics in 2012

In 2012, the United States experienced the most partisan, nationalized, and president-centered federal elections in at least six decades. Record levels of party loyalty in the presidential contest carried over into the House and Senate elections, and the consistency in voting across offices, measured at both the individual and aggregate levels, was the highest observed since the requisite data have been available. In this article, I document these points, with special attention to how patterns of opinion and voting in 2012 compare with those in prior elections contested by sitting presidents. I then consider possible explanations for why Barack Obama's pursuit of reelection produced such remarkably coherent electoral politics, examining Obama's racially-tinged image among Republicans, sources of his extraordinarily high level of support among Democrats, and the vagaries of the Romney campaign. Finally, I explain why, under the current electoral configuration, electoral coherence delivers incoherent government.