Why the Ideological Melting Pot Is Getting So Lumpy
14th June 2009
About two in three Americans say they prefer to live around people belonging to different races, religions and income groups. In reality, however, survey research shows that people are increasingly clustering together among those who are just like themselves, especially on the one attribute that ties the others together — political affiliation.
A trend much reported on, but only dimly understood. Unfortunately, most “journalists” are charter members of the “we value diversity” crowd and find wanting to live around people more or less like oneself to be between barbaric and incomprehensible. Hence what makes it into the dinosaur media is typically fairly incoherent. This article is a step in the right direction.
This might explain the loathing many Republicans and Democrats feel for each other. It isn’t about taxes or terrorism: The yoga people simply can’t stand what the lawn-chemical people represent, and vice versa. This might explain why, despite all of Obama’s calls for an America that is larger than its differences, political polarization at the county level intensified between 2004 and 2008.
And that expresses it very neatly.