Almost Classical

Over on Politico, the divisions we know exist are examined yet again, this time in a new Pew poll. Pew poll: Polarization highest in recent history Two decades ago, “a lot of Democrats and Republicans said they didn’t really like what the other party was doing, but they didn’t downright worry about them and see them as a threat in the way that we’re seeing from a lot of people today,” said Michael Dimock, Pew’s vice president for research. On Facebook, my political friends are increasingly intolerant of other views. It is best to be neutral and ignore the political, or you risk having to choose sides when neither "side" is of much interest. The hatred, the name calling, the complete intolerance for "them" and a conviction that "they" are destroying this country is… destroying this country. As a classical liberal, I'm the definition of a radical moderate. Leave me alone, and I'll support your right to be left alone. Let me be a heath-consciou...

The "Great Sort" at the local and state level, not the evils of redistricting, has changed our government — and, more importantly, our national discussions on all issues. And I do mean all  issues, because studies show left/right; progressive / liberal / libertarian / conservative; secular/religious; North / South / East / West; and other ways to group people correlate to music choices, television viewing, trust in government, and much more. How can we prove that redistricting isn't the villain behind our political discourse? Easily: we look at the Senate, which should represent entire states, not statistically modeled and gerrymandered districts. Yet, the Senate, supposedly the great deliberative body of our government, has become little more than yet another left-right battleground. The ideological middle is dead in Congress. Really dead. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/10/the-ideological-middle-is-dead-in-congress-really-dead/ BY CHRIS CIL...

This morning I was listening to an interview with Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. A few hours earlier, I had been reading the Washington Post online, skimming reader comments on the Detroit automaker mess. There, online, were prime examples of The Big Sort and the results of political isolationism. "Progressives" seem to truly believe that Republicans "hate the working class." Not just some Republicans, but every Republican. Of course, this is absurd, since many Republicans -- including political leaders -- come from the working class. In fact, Bishop pointed out during today's interview that Republicans are overwhelmingly middle class while the "progressive" wing of the Democratic party tends to be richer, better educated... and isolated. In some ways, this isolation is unavoidable. Academics must live near universities. Universities tend to be located in urban center...