White Identity

In HOW CIVIL WARS START, Barbara F. Walter notes that dictators often seize power by being elected in a democracy. They do this as champions of identity politics. 

Often you can spot identity-based dictators because they refer to political opponents as insects. Putin recently characterized his Russian opponents as bugs that fly into your mouth and you spit them out. Calling your opponents bugs is common to ultranationalists on many continents.

In identity politics you base your political actions on what you consider best for your own religion, race, gender, social caste or whatever. In America if you are a white man and you demand what is best for white men, you are practicing identity politics as part of a faction so large it gets taken as the norm. For instance, Mitt Romney is opposed to cancelling student loans, because it would be of little benefit to his identity group of rich white males. 

It is hard to change the minds of voters practicing identity politics; their politics are baked into their identities.

Democracies depend on the ability of voters to change their minds. Democracies depend on voters accepting diversity and accepting losses at the polls. According to Walter, when the voters devolve into hardened factions that will not admit political defeat, that leads to violence and civil war.