[Vision2020] 11-04-04 LA Times OP/ED: ... for a Divided America

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-divide4nov04.story
EDITORIAL
... for a Divided America

November 4, 2004

Tuesday's electoral map looks eerily familiar. Despite the nation's trials and 
triumphs of the last four years, and George W. Bush's ambitious first term, the 
outcome of presidential balloting differed from 2000 in only a few smallish 
states - New Hampshire, New Mexico and probably Iowa. The red-versus-blue 
designation, adopted during the 2000 stalemate, seems to be indelibly coloring 
the map.

After the old Democratic Party lost its hegemony in the Deep South, Americans 
came to assume that, in a more closely linked nation less locked to the power of 
individual states, geography needn't determine political affiliation. But now we 
are left to wonder: Will a GOP presidential candidate ever again carry New York 
or California, and will a Democrat ever carry Texas or Georgia?

Bush improved on his 2000 performance by winning the popular vote this time, but 
his failure to broaden his national market share stands in marked contrast to 
most other presidents who have won reelection. Narrow wins by Ronald Reagan and 
Bill Clinton were followed by convincing incumbent landslides four years later. 
Bush, by contrast, won a second term and a stronger majority in the Congress by 
further galvanizing already red states.

None of this augurs well for a less-polarized nation or a blurring of rural red 
and urban blue into a mellowing purple. The administration and Bush's red-state 
supporters will probably feel emboldened by Tuesday's results to press ahead 
with their agenda, and that will only increase the feeling of alienation in 
states like California and New York.

Tuesday's exit polls added to the sense that the red-blue schism might be more 
intractable than we would have liked to believe. That's because it is defined 
less by issues of the day than by battling cultures. For a plurality of Bush 
supporters in all-important Ohio, for instance, "moral issues" were more 
important in driving their choice than national security or the economy. Church 
attendance has become the most reliable predictor of political allegiance, and 
the likes of Karl Rove are cynically adept at exploiting this cultural divide. 
Witness the proliferation of needless anti-gay marriage initiatives nationwide.

New York state has defied the federal government with its activist regulatory 
actions. And an alienated California has unilaterally moved ahead on 
environmental regulation and, now, on stem cell research. If red and blue 
Americans can't relate to each other enough to put some purple on the map, their 
division will lead to more serious balkanization than a go-it-alone stem cell 
policy.
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