WHEN historians look back at the earthquake that shook American politics in 2016, two books deserve recognition as important early warnings. The first, “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam, was published way back in 2000. With the prescience of a ranch-hound growling at a far-off tremor, Mr Putnam, a political scientist, reported that Americans were living increasingly solitary lives, slumped in front of televisions or surfing the internet, rather than competing in bowling leagues or volunteering for such civic groups as the Knights of Columbus.
The second book, clanging like a ranch-bell as the first tremors arrived, was “The Big Sort: Why The Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart” by Bill Bishop. Published in 2008, this reported that when Americans emerge, blinking, from their TV dens they increasingly inhabit communities which share their partisan, religious or cultural views. In the presidential election of 1976, some 27% of Americans lived in “landslide counties” which Jimmy Carter either won or lost by at least 20 percentage points. By 2004, when George Bush narrowly won re-election, 48% of counties saw landslides.
Now comes a third book...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2oPMtMP
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