Heartening article.

[Taft]

Just when I get totally cynical about politics and think everyone in the world is being pushed into "camps" which are totally at odds with each other, along comes this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/weekinreview/13tier.html?hp

It describes how, while it appears that America is becoming more divided than every, that is really an illusion pushed by extremists within the two major parties. Rather than becoming more divided, many scholars say Americans agree on more issues than ever.

Gives me hope. Maybe a uniter in the Oval Office isn't such a pipe dream, after all. Then again, maybe I'd believe this article more if a man like McCain would get nominated over a man like G.W.

Taft

[Neserk]

need a subscription to read...

[screener]

need a subscription to read...

Registration is free, subscription for archived articles.

[Neserk]

nothing is free ;) Why do they want my info?

[Desertrat]

Registration's free, plus there's a daily email of headlines linked to articles.

"Further evidence of a truce comes from Paul DiMaggio, a sociologist at Princeton, and colleagues who have studied attitudes toward a wide range of issues like race, crime, the role of women and the welfare state. They looked at various demographic divisions - by race, age, sex, education, religious denomination, region - and found that gaps among groups have been constant or shrinking for the past three decades.

"The two big surprises in our research," Professor DiMaggio said, "were the increasing agreement between churchgoing evangelicals and mainline Protestants, even on abortion, and the lack of increasing polarization between African-Americans and whites. Evangelicals have become less doctrinaire and more liberal on issues like gender roles. African-Americans are showing more diversity in straying from the liberal line on issues like government programs that assist minorities."

Alan Wolfe, a political scientist at Boston College, reached similar conclusions in his 1998 book, "One Nation, After All," which called the culture war largely a product of intellectuals."

**********

The NeoCons aren't representative of conservatives in general. The national liberal-elite types don't represent the mainstream of just-liberal-folks. The polarization out at the ends has been increasing since the beginnings of LBJ's Great Society. On the Web, Democratic Underground is merely the wild-eyed left's equivalent of the Christian Identity...

'Rat

[screener]

nothing is free ;) Why do they want my info?

You're paranoid? They just want to know who their readership is?, for ads maybe? It's not like they ask for your addrress, etc.
Click on the I ain't interested in you sending me any crap button, I don't get anything.

[Neserk]

You're paranoid? .

Who me??? :eek:

No, just tired of getting stuff in my box.

[Taft]

Who me??? :eek:

No, just tired of getting stuff in my box.

I am paranoid, as well. Though I do trust the NYTimes with my info.

Anyway, for the truely paranoid. If you'd like to view any NYTimes article for free:

1. Go to news.google.com
2. In the search box, type 'site:nytimes.com' followed by...
3. ... some keywords from the artcle you want to search for.
4. Hit search.
5. Locate the article in the search results.
6. Each article in the search results has multiple links. Find the link that ends with 'partner=GOOGLE'
7. Click on that link.

For example, to find this article, go to news.google.com and search for 'site:nytimes.com "A Nation Divided? Who Says?"'.

There are also sites which will convert a register-only NYTimes URL into a free URL. I couldn't find them on a quick google search, though.

Enjoy!

Taft

[Taft]

BTW, here is the "registration-free" url to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/weekinreview/13tier.html?ex=1087704000&en=302ff155c90f19f0&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Taft

[wwworry]

they don't send you any emails unless you ask for them. I have been registered for years without a problem. Besides that the newstand price is $1.00 so you really are getting a good deal.