Political Culture

I agree with Alyse that our political culture, here in America, is conflictual because of the different lifestyles. Brooks points out that a Red American generally attends church more often than Blue American and that Blue Americans are usually better educated than Red Americans. He says, “Red America is traditional, religious, self-disciplined, and patriotic. Blue America is modern, secular, self-expressive, and discomfited by blatant displays of patriotism.” These different lifestyles have been categorized in Red America and Blue America. I also agree with Emily when she says that without these differences we would be close to a communist country. These differing opinions are what make us America; they represent all of our factions. Frank mentions this by using a “high school cafeteria” analogy. There are two factions, boys and girls, and within those factions are even more factions, jocks, nerds, etc. This is a great representation because sometimes the factions inside of the main faction don’t agree as well leading to even more conflict. Ultimately, American culture is conflictual.

-If we did not point out the differences between the two political cultures, do you think that we would focus on these differences as much?