Turns out my earlier post could have come out of a book. The Big Sort, a blog over at Slate, is all about the culture war as viewed through the political lens. You could call it Freakopolitics. The blog is a spinoff of a book by the same name, which I just added to my wish list.

This post in particular jibes with what I wrote two months ago.

College kids who join a conservative fraternity move to the right during their four years in college. Liberals from Boulder asked to discuss some issues of the day, such as global warming and gay marriage, are more liberal at the end of their discussion than before. Racists brought into a room to discuss race grow more intolerant.

The more you interact with people like you, and the less you interact with people not like you, the more polarized you become in your worldview. And thanks to the Internet, no matter who you are, there’s an echo chamber just for you.

And it’s killing us.

We transfer our hopes and dreams and identities onto “our” candidate, talk him up until he is larger than life, swallow all the marketing, and suddenly it’s Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader out there. Our side is the Rebellion and yours is the Empire. You’re a religious nut. I’m unpatriotic. That guy over there is a bigot. She’s a terrorist sympathizer. Get a life already. Go talk amongst yourselves instead of pointing fingers.

The truth is, despite all the hearts and flags and intangibles, the candidates are more alike than different when it comes to actual, hard, cold, boring policy. Most of the difference is imputed by us. Strip away all that and you have two great Americans, either of which I’ll be honored to call President.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a vote to cast.

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