Political Cultures

I agree with Sarah and Alyse. Sarah mentioned how with so many people in the country there is no possible way for everyone to have the same opinion on every issue. Because of this, America is a conflictual country. The whole country is split up into two parts: Blue America who are the liberals and democrats, and Red America, who are the conservative republicans. In Brooks' article he explained the physical difference between the two areas. He said that the Red America was more old fashioned, didn't really care about their appearance and were very involved with church, while Blue America cared about what they looked like, and used a lot of modern technology and devices. These are just a couple of the many differences between the two separate parts of the country, but they show how different they are. As the reader goes through the articles the authors make it seem like Red and Blue America aren't even the same country. There are so many differences in even the daily lives of the citizens, it seems that the countries aren't even under the same form of government. In Frank's reading he said, "America is always in a state of quasi-civil war: on one side are the unpretentious millions of authentic Americans; and on the other stand the bookish, all powerful liberals." The idea that the country is always at war comes from the fact that there are always opposite views on every idea or change happening in the country. If Red America feels one way on an issue, then Blue America  will feel the opposite. There is always conflict between which side is right, and usually there is no answer. Both sides have good reasoning on issues, so there is no winner. Since there is no winner it is a continuous war, which makes our country conflictual. Another one of the big conflicts within the country is the different sides not seeing the benefit of each other. For example a quote from Frank's reading says, "the work we [red states] do can be measured in bushels, pounds, shingles nailed, and bricks laid, rather than in the fussy judgments that make up office employees reviews." This quote explains how the Red states believe that their work is far more important than the work of the Red states that only work in offices and get reviews from a boss. The red states believe their work is providing for the country while the blue states do not. This is most likely also true for the Blue states. They probably believe they are contributing to the government and economic problems in the country while the red states are just growing food. Both sides have their own values in this and neither are right. Because of these differences in values the Bush v Gore election in 2000 was very close. Both sides of the nation wanted their representative to win to carry on their beliefs and it was an extremely close running. Bush ended up winning for the Democrats by 4 electoral votes. Therefore, the country is very conflictual which is shown through the different views and values as well as how each color states do not value each other's work as greatly as they do their's.