Americans Say Country is ‘More Divided.’ Maybe It’s Not Divided Enough.

About two-thirds of Americans
say the country is more politically divided than it was four years
ago, with blame going equally to the president and Congress.
Fortunately, our countrymen have a plan for addressing these
divisions: they plan to vote this November, presumably to enact
their vision of the good life into law and stuff it down the
throats of the folks on the other side of the divide.

Maybe, just maybe, the country should be really divided
a whole lot more, so that people wouldn’t have to hope “candidates
they vote for will steer the country in the right direction” rather
than the direction the other side wants. Bringing decision-making
as far down the food chain as possible—preferably leaving most
matters to individual choice—would make the current fretting over
political polarization irrelevant.

Anyway, according to
Rasmussen Reports, “Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Likely U.S.
Voters say America is a more divided nation than it was four years
ago.”

Thirty-five percent put the blame on President Obama, while 34
percent tap Republicans in Congress as the culprits for all of this
terrible disagreement.

To bridge the divide, or maybe just emplace fortified bunkers at
their end of it, 57 percent of all voters say they are more likely
to vote this year than they have been in past elections.
Republicans have the edge on enthusiasm for the ballot box (65
percent), followed by 55 percent of unaffiliated voters and 53
percent of Democrats.

Fifty-nine percent “are at least somewhat confident that the
candidates they vote for will steer the country in the right
direction.” That seems, at best, a problematic “solution” for
dealing with disagreement over just what that direction should
be.

Other polling has found that
much of the public at large actually has similar positions on
many major issues—that is, the political battle lines may be drawn
between Red and Blue, but many Americans are a tad purplish if you
ask them specifics. But that doesn’t take into account levels of
enthusiasm for different solutions, or for actually participating
in the hard work of changing and implement policies.

It also doesn’t mean that the stuff on which much of the public
agrees necessarily consists of good ideas. Lousy choices have a
strong constituency, too.

And the Pew Research Center finds that
political loyalties have grown so hardened that they’ve taken
on cultural aspects. Liberals and conservatives don’t just believe
different things, they live differently, and apart from one
another. That suggests that the divisions people perceive may well
be here for the long term.

Which is all the more reason to turn them into real divisions.
Forget ballot-box games of winner-take-all. Divide power as far as
possible down to the level of individuals, and reduce the stakes of
divisions and disagreements.