Quality Leadership Weblog :-)

Self-segregated America—at least along political lines.  Posted by Thomas P.M. Barnett on June 2, 2008 6:24 AM

So if you accept the Brownstein argument, and I do, then this one by Galston and Nivola indicates that the Boomer age has resulted in a sort of political segregation: we naturally move to counties where we feel politically comfortable.

Interesting posting in reference to the Article: “Vote Like Thy Neighbor: Why the American electorate is more politically polarized than ever,” by William A. Galston and Pietro S. Nivola, New York Times Magazine, 11 May 2008, p. 12.

Political parties, interest groups, et.al., have value in helping identify the polarity in respective issues.  The forgotten element is the principle that people will unite and work together to achieve ideal outcomes and will become “segregated” when they work to achieve non-ideal outcomes.

I wrote an article a few years ago titled: A Transformation to Quality Government  that provides an approach for re-framing the political debate with a focus on working towards ideal as opposed to non-ideal outcomes.   Wish I could claim credit for the theory behind the idea but it really belongs to the Founding Fathers — just been forgotten over time.

An example of applying the concepts in Resolving Controversial Issues Such as Abortion, may also help illustrate the approach.   Also illustrated the concept as it applied to the Motor Voter Law.