Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Uniting America

Yale University Press

Contents

Preface..........................................................................................................viiIntroduction.....................................................................................................1Part One. Restoring the Vital Center1. Overcoming Polarization: The New Social Morality Daniel Yankelovich...........................................172. Nurturing Economic Growth and the Values of American Democracy Norton Garfinkle...............................31Part Two. Reforming Social Security and Health Care3. Social Security and Medicare Reform for the Twenty-First Century Will Marshall................................494. The Ethics of America's Health Care Debate Tsung-mei Cheng and Uwe E. Reinhardt...............................67Part Three. Diversity and Unity5. Religion as Unifier and Divider Alan Wolfe....................................................................936. Diversity, Community, and Government Peter H. Schuck..........................................................1097. Immigration and Social Disorder Peter Skerry..................................................................124Part Four. Security and Liberty8. Fighting the War on Terrorism Francis Fukuyama................................................................1419. Constitutional Responsibility in the War on Terrorism Michael Vatis...........................................155Part Five. Character, Citizenship, and Values10. Character Education and the Challenge of Raising a Moral Generation Chester E. Finn, Jr......................18111. Citizenship, Civic Unity, and National Service William A. Galston............................................19812. The Fair Society Amitai Etzioni..............................................................................211Part Six. Environmental and Electoral Reform13. Toward a Sustainable Environmentalism Mark Sagoff............................................................22714. Is Reform of America's Electoral System Possible? Thomas E. Mann.............................................245Conclusion: The Impact of Fateful Trends.........................................................................265Contributors.....................................................................................................269Index............................................................................................................271

Chapter One

The New Social Morality

Daniel Yankelovich

Today's political thinking is colored in tones of red and blue. In the 2000 election, the two coasts and a few states in the Great Lakes region voted Democratic (blue), and the heartland, the South, and most of the Southwest voted Republican (red). In the 2004 election, the red/blue division proved even starker-a sea of red edged in blue. The red/blue theory argues that our nation is being transformed from unity to divisiveness, from pragmatism to ideology, from comity to bitter partisanship, from willingness to compromise to unyielding rigidity. According to the red/blue polarization thesis, we have evolved into a 50-50 nation-50 percent liberal and 50 percent conservative. There is no in-between.

This red/blue dichotomy has become very popular among pundits. Because it is understandable and offers an explanation for the climate of bitterness and frustration in Washington, the red/blue paradigm dominates today's political discourse.

Are we, in fact, becoming a house divided against itself? If this were so, it would signify a radical transformation of our unique American democracy. A careful look at the data, however, shows a far different picture from that presented by the polarization pundits. Opinion polls document too modest a shift in general public attitudes to justify the image of a nation irreconcilably divided; this misleading image masks what is really going on.

HISTORICAL TRENDS

To some extent, the polarization of politicians in Washington reflects a secular trend that has evolved over forty years. It traces back to President Lyndon Johnson's determination, following JFK's assassination in 1963, to pass civil rights legislation even at the cost of losing the "solid South" for the Democratic Party. Between then and now, America's two major political parties have gradually moved away from the "Big Tent" concept whereby each party included liberals, moderates, and conservatives. Our two political parties in Washington are now beginning to look more like European-type parties consisting of people who share the same ideological orientation. The widening spread in Congress between Republicans and Democrats on key issues may be more a matter of like-minded Southerners changing party affiliations than the majority of Americans growing more polarized in their attitudes.

Accentuating this long-term trend in party affiliation is a troubled and anxious public mood relating specifically to the presidency of George W. Bush. George Bush won the presidency in 2000 by promising to be "a uniter, not a divider," to practice "compassionate conservatism," and to pursue a "humble" foreign policy. These promises of a modest and unifying presidency resonated with the electorate. As a candidate, Mr. Bush positioned himself rhetorically close to the center of gravity of American politics-slightly right of center. These "unifying" promises were particularly appropriate for a new president who actually lost the popular vote and won the electoral vote only narrowly, something that has happened only three times before in our history.

It did not take long, however, for the Bush administration to change direction. President Bush has not governed as a centrist. He has governed more from the right than he indicated he would in the 2000 election. He has embraced an aggressive and highly assertive foreign policy, certainly not the humble one that he had advocated in the 2000 campaign. And he has proven himself a divider, not a uniter. He has largely failed to follow through on his promise of compassionate conservative policies for less-well-off Americans. He has catered to the right wing of his party, ignoring the priorities of moderates and liberals. Continuing in this vein, Bush built his victory in the 2004 election on a strategy of maximizing Republican turnout by energizing his conservative base-rather than moving to the political center to capture swing and independent voters, as most successful presidential candidates and incumbents have done in the past. The effect has been to intensify the country's sense of division.

The cultural issues roiling the nation are of a quite different character. Far from being a transitory move, they involve a long-term struggle over the direction of our future social morality.

Traditionally, while the law marks the border between criminal and noncriminal behavior, social norms mark the border between right and wrong. In most societies, the layer of law is relatively thin, while the layer of social morality that sets the standards for how people and institutions should act is much thicker. This largely uncodified body of moral norms is essential to the healthy functioning of society.

One unintended consequence of the American "cultural revolution" of the 1960s was that it caused this thick layer of social morality to erode. The emphasis on individualism-both culturally and economically-has...