It's comfortable living in a cocoon -- associating only with those who share your views, reading journalism and watching news that only reinforce them, avoiding those on the other side of the cultural divide.

Liberals have been doing this for a long time. In 1972 the movie critic Pauline Kael said...

Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State by Andrew Gelman and The Big Sort by Bill Bishop are must-reads for understanding the inner workings of American politics.

The evolution of American politics and policy has been intimately bound up with demographic and geographic change. The arrival of the GI generation, the advance of suburbanization, the rise of the baby boomers, and women’s entry into the workforce all had profound effects on our society. Today, new demographic and...

This second conference about "Red, Blue, and Purple America" brings back the panelists who convened in February 2008 to discuss America's changing demographic trends and electoral landscape.

The tea party is hostile toward the New Elite, charging that elites are isolated from mainstream America and ignorant about the lives of ordinary Americans. Those allegations have merit.

The demographics of the United States are changing,butthemajor political parties are struggling to keep up with the changes.

The inability of Democrats to find unity on the Medicare bill is nota criticism ofNancy Pelosi, but rather her colleagues who provided the votes that enabled the GOP to squeeze the bill through.