There is a longstanding debate about the nature and significance of ideology in the US public. This chapter analyzes survey data showing a steady growth in the association (constraint) of beliefs and voting behavior when it comes to identification as conservative or liberal, including among those who have not graduated from college. What we have now is an increasingly well-structured conservative ideology among adherents in the public, a finding at odds with traditional views of ideological innocence in the adult population. The chapter concludes that the Trump phenomenon in the US can be seen as a capstone of trends toward an increasingly aware conservative part of the electorate, one with shared beliefs and anger about many modern social trends, rather than as an aberration. The days of ideological innocence in the broader American public appear over, and with this an important feature of the pluralist politics of past years.