Wedge Issues
Some political topics aren't chosen because they matter most. They're chosen because they split you apart most effectively.
A wedge issue is a topic deliberately selected to divide voters along emotional lines. Gun control. Abortion. Immigration. These are real issues that affect real lives — but the reason they dominate every election cycle isn't their importance. It's their ability to split the electorate roughly in half with maximum emotional intensity. A perfect wedge issue has no easy compromise, triggers identity rather than analysis, and can be reduced to a slogan that fits on a bumper sticker.
The strategy is straightforward: if you can get voters to choose sides on a handful of emotionally charged topics, you don't have to compete on policy substance. Nobody asks about tax structures or trade deals when they're furious about a culture war headline. The wedge does the work — it sorts people into teams, and once they're on a team, they stop evaluating and start defending.
Notice which issues get amplified every election and which ones stay quiet. The ones that disappear between campaigns were probably never about you. The ones that reappear like clockwork — those are the wedge. They were chosen for their ability to keep you angry, not for their chance of being solved.
References
- Thomas Frank — What's the Matter with Kansas? (2004)
- Finkel et al. — Political Sectarianism in America (2020)