There’s an excellent article in the Christian Science Monitor on the political and cultural homogenization of America:
Stores don’t sell products anymore, they sell lifestyles. And certain kinds of communities attract outlets, and vice versa. That, in part, is why you won’t find a single Wal-Mart in Manhattan or a single Crate and Barrel in Arkansas.
And where politics is concerned, there are a number of factors behind the current split. The political banter has gotten uglier. When people disagree, those on the other side aren’t just wrong, they’re increasingly evil or stupid or – as top-rated talking head Bill O’Reilly of Fox News says – they’re “pinheads.”
Go read it, now.
(via CSM: “A suddenly segregated red and blue US?” by Dante Chinni [May 6, 2004])