Himmelfarb, Gertrude. "Two Nations or Two Cultures?" Commentary Magazine. January, 2001.

Exceprt:

I entirely (well, almost entirely) agree with Terry Teachout. The election has confirmed, even dramatized, the cultural divide in our nation—a cultural divide, as he points out, that now coincides with a geographical divide (that L-shaped swath of the country) and a political divide (“Republican Nation” versus “Democratic Nation”). I also agree with him that cultural issues have become more prominent even as political ones (prescription drugs, tax cuts, and the like) have become less so. How else explain the fact that at a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity, half the electorate was prepared to turn out the party in power? Or that the “religion gap,” the “gender gap,” the “marriage gap,” and other cultural gaps have become so conspicuous? (They are even more conspicuous than the statistics cited by Teachout suggest: 70 percent of Republican voters are married; 52 percent of Democratic voters.)

 

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