But is there anything new in this? American politics has always had a powerful racial/ethnic/religious dimension. It saved us from naked class-based voting typical of other countries.
You have a point, but this identity based voting is poisonous! At least with class-based, people could move up and down. With this caste based, you are how you were born! It is stable, but too much stagnant... a poison that will rot the society from within.