The cultural monoculture rendered political opposition seemingly impossible to liberals.

Evidence

Despite such rising tensions, liberals in 2016 remained confident that the country was trending toward a “permanent Democratic majority”—especially as the ascendant upper-middle class embraced the optimistic, pro-business outlook that had once fueled Republican victories. The booming tech industry also seemed firmly in their corner. Throughout 2016, Clinton held steady leads in the polls, and there appeared to be no widely accepted ideological challenge to a multicultural America. Conservatives were uncool, backward, and strange. With pop culture grounded in ideas of maximal inclusivity, how could a provincial-minded political coalition ever expect to win again? — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 413

Categorization

• XREF: This directly feeds the reader’s goal: the ‘omnivore monoculture’ thesis predicts the futility of the counter-coalition, and this paragraph sets up the 2016 reversal Marx uses as evidence.