The ongoing fight over funding the government — which may finally be on the verge of a long-term resolution — has centered in large part on immigration. Democrats want a replacement for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and if they settle for a deal without one, they’re likely incur a good deal of wrath from their base.

That wrath probably would have been substantially milder even a few years ago. But there is a broader story happening here, according to public opinion polls and the moves of key elites in the party: Democrats have grown more liberal on issues of race, gender and identity — and not just the nonwhite and female Democrats.

Whites in the Democratic Party now see racism against people of color as a huge issue, increasingly perceiving it in a similar way to African-Americans and much differently than white Republicans. Similarly, men in the Democratic Party now see women as facing sexism in American society in numbers comparable to how Democratic women see the issue — and often in much greater degrees than Republican women.