Austin Bartola

4 Discussion and Conclusion We have argued that beliefs about the American economy—in particular, whether it is meritocratic and, therefore, fair[10] or instead biased and unfair—represent an important rift between the two parties. In national platforms since 1980, Democratic and Republican party elites have consistently disagreed as to the reasons why some people succeed and others struggle, and this disagreement has grown over the past two decades or so.