People Like Us

In 2008, Sharon and I spent a considerable amount of money to move from San Antonio’s 78209 zip code (the affluent and very conservative Terrill Hills/Alamo Heights subdivision) to the 78256 zip code (Rosedale, one of Austin’s more liberal enclaves). Voluntarily relinquishing our supposedly elite “09-er” status, we had just “sorted ourselves”.

Fast forward to April of this year when we took the two-day train ride from Lhasa to Beijing. This, the longest railway journey I have ever undertaken, allowed me to read Bill Bishop’s “The Big Sort” which documents the dramatic acceleration of the cultural and political division of America society over the last thirty years. This has been a process of self-selection whereby those that have the means to do so, have chosen to live in areas where everybody thinks and lives like they do.

This process manifests itself in many ways: voting preferences, educational beliefs, principles of child rearing, opinions on major social issues, environmental concerns etc. This is not a new phenomenon, people have been seeking out their own for millennia. However it is the pace and degree of this segregation that Bishop claims is so remarkable. Savvy advertisers, the Evangelical church and the Republican Party in 2004 have been quick to understand and exploit the Big Sort, effectively identifying and targeting potential customers and constituents.

Another manifestation of this change is that the rule of “all or nothing” is now rigorously enforced. If you are to be embraced as a true conservative then you must subscribe to all their tenets. The same is no less true to be considered a reliable liberal. Having a diverse range of opinion seems to be becoming less acceptable to both sides. Ironically, this leads, perhaps, to a valid accusation of hypocrisy on the part of the left. Whereas the more liberal sections of society claim to embrace diversity in all its forms (gender, age, race, sexual preferences), they are often unwilling to consider the opinions of their political opposition. One could argue that much of the far right make no such claims of diversity in the first place. In either case, it makes it extremely difficult (sadly) to engage in intelligent discussion of the issues without rancor or even hatred.

Things get worse. Sociologists and psychologists argue that tribal grouping in of itself can lead to even further intolerance, conflict and eventually self-destruction. At the very least, in means that reaching a consensus on the major issues of the day becomes increasingly less likely. True moderates and independent voters are becoming endangered species and straight-ticket voting becomes the norm.

Though a well-researched book which presumably relies on sound statistical data, “The Big Sort” was clearly written by a liberal. Bishop has, of course, already sorted himself into Austin’s Travis Heights. What is not quite clear is whether he “blames” the right wing for the “Sort” or whether he acknowledges that it is indeed a truly bi-partisan phenomenon.