Have you heard about the great political divide that sets red against blue—the national polarization touted by breathless news stories about an already pretty gasp-y report by the Pew Research Center?...
But...How is this a problem? If people with common preferences and values choose to live near one another, shouldn't that reduce friction?...
Political sorting is actually a solution to deep ideological divides—if that sorting lets people live the way they want. But if people go through all of that trouble of moving away from the opposition, only to find alien rules, laws, and taxes jammed down their throats, you can see why "partisan antipathy" might get a little heated.Here to make it worse as always, Megan McArdle:
If we're going to have a more partisan geography -- and it does seem as if we are -- then what we also need is more federalism. Push as many decisions as possible down to the local level -- not whether Colorado can pollute rivers that run through California, but decisions about taxes, social spending, health care and regulation.Just like the Kansas-Nebraska Act!
I've said before that libertarians are conservatives with social anxieties, but I feel compelled to add that conservatives mainly tolerate them because they're not ashamed (having no shame, nor other human emotions, nor any chance of being elected) to argue that the Civil War was a huge mistake on the part of the North.
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