Horsey: America's political divide is turning into a chasm
By David Horsey
June 6, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
BRATTLEBORO, VT. -- Sunday morning, I was having breakfast at a funky café that prides itself on organic food and the languid preparation thereof. With time to observe the locals passing by, I came to an epiphany about why this green wedge of America feels so unique: Vermont is what the whole country would be like if the hippie ideals of the 1960s and ‘70s had matured and taken root everywhere.
<snip>
Vermont politics is intimate, progressive and driven by local activists. At the heifer festival, I noticed the state’s U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders walking through the crowd just like a regular guy. That’s Bernie Sanders, the only avowed socialist in Congress. That he is hugely popular here is additional testament to Vermont’s distinct place among the 50 states.
<snip>
When it comes to American politics, the stark distinctions are actually increasing. According to a new study from the Pew Research Center, the ideological gap between Bernie Sanders and, say, South Carolina’s Sen. Jim DeMint is the same gaping chasm that separates most American voters. Over the last 25 years, on issues that once had strong support in both the Republican and Democratic parties, there is now little common ground, according to the Pew poll. Immigration, the social safety net, environmental protection and, especially, the role of government all have become deeply partisan areas of debate.
<snip>
In this great divide I see 150-year-old ghosts.
In the town squares and cemeteries throughout Vermont and the rest of New England, memorials to Union soldiers are ubiquitous. On a hill at the lower end of the Boston Common, for instance, stands a towering column topped by a goddess of democracy. This memorial gives tribute to the Massachusetts soldiers who, as the inscription on this shrine declares, “kept the Union whole, destroyed slavery and maintained the Constitution.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-political-divide-20120605,0,5155479.story
= new reply since forum marked as read
