A Somber Ronald Brownstein: Red America, Blue America, and the Quickening Division of America

In a piece for the National Journal, Ron Brownstein makes a case that, as a self-governing entity, the United States is chronically divided along ideological, cultural, and religious grounds.  At the federal level, this division is manifested in a Republican-controlled House.  The U.S. Supreme Court, in turn, often splits along party lines on weighty issues.

Brownstein contends that, at the state level, the so-called blue states and red states are diverging politically at a faster rate.  On matters such as same-sex marriage and abortion,  Democratic-leaning and Republican-leaning states increasingly have less and less in common.  Brownstein claims that "all of this reveals a political system losing its capacity to create common ground between party coalitions divided along economic, racial, generational, and even religious lines." He notes that, as we commemorate Independence Day, our contemporary divisions should give us pause.

Ron Brownstein: Red and Blue America Dividing at a Faster Rate

"Last November, Obama became only the third Democrat in the party's history to win a majority of the popular vote twice. But congressional Republicans, preponderantly representing the minority that voted against Obama, have conceded almost nothing to his majority—leaving the two sides at a stalemate. Meanwhile, beyond the Beltway, states that lean Democratic and those that lean Republican are separating at a frenetic pace."

---Ronald Brownstein