During a campaign year, focus on the idea that certain places in America are politically one-sided, either more solidly Republican or Democrat, is expected. In recent years, for example, the division of states into "red" and "blue" has become part of the national political dialogue, creating a type of scorecard for candidates. Moreover, certain regions have historically favored one party over the other.
In the past generation, however, such divisions have taken on a new and perhaps more disturbing meaning, according to author and journalist Bill Bishop. In his new book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, Bishop suggests that Americans have self-segregated into states, cities and communities that have little to do with each other.
Such polarization has the potential for far more than political consequences, Bishop proposes. It creates "balkanized communities whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incompre-hensible; a growing intolerance for political differences that has made national consensus impossible; and politics so polarized that Congress is stymied and elections are no longer just contests over policies, but bitter choices between ways of life."
The Big Sort is painstakingly researched and thorough in its presentation. It is a compelling read, challenging us to look at a reality that many Americans have chosen not to examine too closely. In doing so, Bishop provides us with a new lens of understanding as to how we see ourselves as a nation.
The author worked as a columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader and as a reporter for the Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky. He uses examples from the commonwealth, with those on Harlan County particularly interesting.
Bishop developed his ideas after noting that in 1976, less than a quarter of Americans lived in places where the presidential election was a landslide. In 2004, nearly half of all voters lived in landslide counties.
After careful review of other possible factors, including gerrymandering and population increase, Bishop concluded that this change came about due to "The Big Sort." This demographic shift has major social, economic and religious implications, as well as political.
"What had happened over three decades wasn't a simple increase in political partisanship," Bishop writes, "but a more fundamental kind of self-perpetuating, self-reinforcing social division."
The problem with such sorting is that it runs counter to the benefits of national diversity. America was founded with the belief that when people of different opinions challenged each other face to face, the country would be stronger and more creative in problem solving, Bishop argues. With our increasingly isolated groupings, that simply doesn't happen.
Collaborating with Robert Cushing, whose statistical studies form the basis for the book, Bishop sets out to explain the meanings behind the Big Sort. Around 1965, trust in major institutions began to decline, along with membership in mainline churches and broad-based civic institutions. Ones that are more homogeneous replaced these institutions, Bishop argues.
But it's important to keep in mind that the Big Sort isn't just a political phenomenon - it's a way of life. "Freed from want and worry," Bishop writes, "people were reordering their lives around their values, their tastes and their beliefs." In addition to political parties, churches, civic clubs, and volunteer organizations all grew more like-minded. The Big Sort was big because it "constituted a social and economic reordering."
The economic implications of the movement are as astounding as the social ones. Over 40 percent of the country's metropolitan areas lost white population in the 1990s. During that time, young people were distributed evenly among cities. By 2000, they were concentrated in just a score of cities.
Bishop points out that Americans have been polarized before and that such divisions are usually healed by mutual issues of concern. Health care, for example, may be one such issue to override the divisiveness of the Big Sort.
Because the Big Sort is not simply a political issue, it won't change with a new Congress or a new president, regardless of current campaign promises. If true, Bishop's picture of the sorting of America is as disturbing as it is enlightening. The clustering of America does indeed have the potential to tear us apart, and the ability to repair that rip in our social and political fabric will prove challenging.
Click here if you'd like to read Bill Bishop's column in this issue of Business Lexington about the differences between Austin, Texas, and Lexington.