The culty character of contemporary politics is entirely due to the complete destruction of labor rights. We've created a situation where you need to have particular political/ideological beliefs to work, because we've failed to protect people from being fired for their political beliefs.

Or more accurately, we've guaranteed that people can be fired instantly, for any arbitrary reason other than one specifically hinging on their membership of a protected class. However, the only way to prove that you've been fired for being in a protected class is for somebody to have clearly said this on a recording or in writing. If they say "no, I fired him for liking superhero movies" they're good to go. So even traditional civil rights actions have been basically annulled, and justice can only be done by activist judges ignoring the letter of the law.

It's important to say that the vast majority of middle class people now support people being fired for political beliefs. They only get angry when people are fired for supporting their political beliefs. They will regret this.