Political Culture

By reading both articles by David Brooks and Thomas Frank on political culture, I can safely say that I agree with most people that America is politically conflictual. Brooks, the author of "One Nation, Slightly Divisible", believes that America is no longer one nation with all of the similar ideologies, goals, or interests, but a two nations that classify themselves as Red American and Blue America. On the other hand, Frank, the author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?", believes that there is a divide in political culture in the United States, but that there is not a substantial difference in what people believe in throughout the country. In my opinion the views of these "two different Americas" are so conflictual and different that they are considered to be their own factions. Red America believing that mostly traditional, religious, self disciplined, patriotic ways make the United States function the best while Blue America has a way of believing that being modern, secular. self-expressive, and "non-patriotic" is the best way for America to succeed and function in a time when change, new political ideas, etc  are always present and are being created indefinitely. Along with theses beliefs in these two divided parts of our nation are also general stereotypes that many use to differentiate the two factions. In Red America there are the outdoor guys that "have a gigantic wad of keys hanging from a belt loop, a tape measure strapped to the belt" (Brooks). They are almost always associated as the tough, hard working, homophobic and racist part of America. On the contrary, Blue America is filled with "upper-middle-class towns inhabited by lawyers, doctors, stockbrokers, and establishment journalists" (Brooks). These types of people are widely described as stuck up, self absorbed, educated and rarely ever blatantly show their patriotism. It is very rare that these two groups of people ever come to an agreement when it comes to politics and that is why the United States of America is politically conflictual.