illustration courtesy of ed mullen at purplestates.orgI don't care much for the color purple, with apologies to Oprah. The image above illustrates rather nicely, if slightly misleadingly, the problem with political dialogue and the way we approach elections. Lately I have been thinking that those are the things I care most about in politics: not the substance of the debate but the manner in which it is conducted.
There's a book I want to read very soon called The Big Sort by Bill Bishop. My inspiration for this is a great little piece in The Economist, which I make no claims on reading regularly. The idea: Americans, for some time now, have been choosing to live among like-minded neighbors. The exchange in the Economist article is telling: the blue Marylanders don't know any conservatives; the red Virginians have no understanding of liberals. It's a choice they made, either consciously or unconsciously.
So let's look at that purple state map at the top again, and compare it to these. Nearly the entire American West is self-segregating, and look at Indiana and Pennsylvania in particular. I don't think these maps really tell the whole story (better told in anecdotes, unfortunately for the argument's sake), but the point that hits home for me is, we don't seem interested in different viewpoints anymore. What fun is a political discussion if everyone spouts the same opinions in different ways? In some ways, this is why I'm glad I live in a town with plenty of conservative old folks, and plenty of liberal younger folks: it gives me something to push against. America has never been about homogeneity; why start now?
At the end of all this, I ask myself two questions: one, are Americans on the whole more alike, or are we more different? Two, are we already at the point when we give up on compromise and retreat to our respective corners? Nationally, are we going to be minglers or wallflowers?
6 comments:
Your post is an interesting one, especially pointing out that its silly for us to blindly surround us by people that reinforce our opinions and beliefs, and refuse to expose ourselves to the possibility that someone else's contrary opinions are correct.
And I think this question: "Are Americans on the whole more alike, or are we more different" is exactly the right question to ask.
Yes we're mostly alike. duh. Nearly all of us believe in the rule of law, government by a Liberal democracy (liberal, not leftist progressive), in a socialized capitalism, and in human freedoms and human rights.
These are the big questions. Not the typical domestic bombs people dwell on (abortion, civil rights, gay marriage, etc), nor the proper approach to our foreign policy (some are more bellicose, and some cry imperialism), but no one will insist on american military dominance by forced capitulation and warfare, for instance.
So. In comparison to the faux democracy in Russia, and the autocracies of North Korea, China and Iran, we agree with each other.
Sorry about the length!
Its probably also important to remember that presidential elections (reference the two maps shown on the big sort website) are not proxies for our opinions. I'd like to see a similar map of state and local elections margins before I'd buy his argument!
Mike writes:
"Yes we're mostly alike."
I agree.
"Nearly all of us believe in the rule of law..."
Uh huh.
"...[l]iberal democracy..."
Yep.
"...a socialized capitalism..."
Wait, what?
Oh come on, don't be difficult. The post office, the fire department, the water utility, social security, medicare, medicaid, the federal reserve, the FEC, the FCC, the police (not the band), the federal highways, unemployment benefits, public libraries, public schools, need I go on?
People like to recoil at the word "socialism", especially people who love capitalism, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone that is against all of the social programs above.
In other words, there are needs that people have that should be fulfilled regardless of race, income or status. Outside of the all powerful market. Unless we want people to be on the street, starving, stupid and sick. Yay alliteration!
If you ask your average Joe, “Do you think we should have an essentially free economy with some restrictions and some goods and services provided by the state?” he'll say, “Sure.”
However, I think it would be wrong to label this common belief with a sophisticated term (which I don’t understand) that may have additional meaning.
That may be splitting hairs.
Post a Comment