America is deeply polarized. As Bill Bishop showed in his excellent book, The Big Sort, many Americans don’t live among or even know anyone who does not share their political outlook. In his review of the book, Thomas Jackson wrote:
San Francisco County is a good example of partisan migration. In 1976, Republican Gerald Ford got 44 percent of the vote; in 2004, George W. Bush got only 15. Republicans did not all die or convert; they cleared out. Mr. Bishop offers an amusing example of the result. “How can the polls say the election is neck and neck?” he quotes a liberal. “I don’t know a single person who is going to vote for Bush.”The internet has accelerated this trend. Half a century ago, a much more “politically integrated” population read the same newspapers and watched the same television channels. Now, most of us read publications that hold fairly explicit positions with which we agree. Leftwing journalist Matt Taibbi is one of the few to notice the problems this causes. After the DNC leak, he tweeted:...... To Read More.....
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