The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

Ironically, at the same time that more and more Americans described their political views as “middle of the road” or “moderate,” the extremes on the ideological spectrum accounted for a bigger and bigger share of those who actually attend meetings, write letters, serve on civic committees, and even go to church. Because moderate voices have fallen silent, more extreme views have gradually become more dominant in grassroots American civic life. Even though many Americans remain self-described moderates, local civic life has become steadily more polarized.76 In the widely discussed book The Big Sort, published in 2008, political observers Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing argued that Americans are increasingly sorting themselves into politically homogenous and geographically segregated enclaves, with growing cultural and lifestyle differences between the two party-tribes as both cause and consequence of this sorting on the basis of partisan identity.