Andrew Sullivan posts a reader's letter that makes the claim that so called "blue state" enclaves such as Boston have more in common with a foreign country (Britain in this case) than the rest of the United States. Sullivan agrees. Another reader contests the comparison and offers his own rather strained response (comparing "red state" America to Iran). Sullivan, however, seems shocked that someone might not only take offense to the original characterization, but that they might also offer their own loaded retort in response.
Sullivan's blog does not allow for comments, so I wasted about 10 minutes composing a response. Here it is:
Mr. Sullivan, I've read the two opposing posts on "blue states/Britain"/"red states/Iran" today and I've come to the conclusion that Americans (yourself included) have lost a real sense of what makes this country great.
I question the sensibility of seeking a deeper truth about Americans by using the tired "red" and "blue" state divisions. I grew up in the south (born in North Carolina, raised in Virginia), went to college in the south, and now work for a major university in Northern California. To be sure, there are regional differences and I would be naive to assume that a liberal lesbian might receive the same initial treatment in a small town in Nebraska as she would in New York City. But, to me, that is beside the point. The cultural and political elite continually clash over the "divided America" but if you truly go out into the cities and towns of this great country, you quite often will find people of tremendously divergent backgrounds living with, working with, playing with, and loving each other with little (if any) regard for political ideology.
The bi-coastal elite (of which there are certainly a great many Republicans, despite their claims to the contrary) interact mostly with each other, dueling in their hyper-partisan way through the op-ed pages and books, broadcasting the self-important primacy of their ideas. Most Americans, in my humble opinion, don't care all that much for this kind of liberal/conservative pugilism; their concerns are more local and of the day to day variety.
What's lost in the "red state/blue state" debate is that many people hold mixed (dare I say "moderate"?) views, even among those who claim a party allegiance. Morris Fiorina's book "Culture War?" reveals as much. If you accept that some of America's greatness comes from the wonderfully diverse citizenry and the pragmatism that it embodies, then these classifications become unnecessary.
In times like these, we would do well to remember that our national motto is "E Pluribus Unum" ("out of many,one").
Posted by uvasig 