In the usual liberal account, President Donald Trump reawakened America's atavistic, bigoted side, driving both the Republican Party and the United States to the right. In the usual conservative retort, it's the left that became more extreme in the 2010s, adopting radical views on race and gender that meant a moderate could seem to be moving rightward while in fact he was standing still.

But there is a third possibility: that liberals spent the decade moving leftward on questions of race and sexual orientation—and so did conservatives. And while the so-called Great Awokening has cooled somewhat since Joe Biden succeeded Trump as president, Republicans may have quietly continued to trend leftward on racial issues.

To be clear: I am speaking of public opinion here, not public officials or public policy. And I don't dispute that explicit bigots became a lot noisier in the mid-'10s, or that they acquired more influence in certain circles.