The Clustering Of Like-Minded America

The title of this article is based on Bill Bishop’s book The Big Sort: Why The Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart.

These days, the word “divided” is just as commonplace in the American vernacular as “lit”, “woke”, and “word.” It no longer warrants a surprising look, rather it is simply accepted as one of the key descriptors of our present society.

Last night, I started to read a fascinating book that my friend, and old colleague from FirstMark, Jim Hao, recommended a while back called The Big Sort by Bill Bishop.

It’s a deep and thoughtful analysis into the division of our country and its increased political polarization. It proffers a unique answer, of which I was previously unaware, as to why our country’s division is growing and what may be its root cause.

The book begins in Texas, with the author, Bill Bishop, describing how he and his wife chose the location of their residence in Austin.

My wife and I made the move to Austin, Texas, in the way of middle-class American migrants. We rented a Ford Taurus at the airport, bought an Austin map at a U-Tote-Um quick stop, and toured the city in search of a place to live. We didn’t have a list of necessities—granite countertops or schools with killer SATs — as much as we had a mental image of the place we belonged. We drove and when a place felt comfortable, seemed right, my wife, the daughter of one of Kentucky’s last New Deal liberals, drew a smiley face on the map. (pg. 1) What Bishop stresses from page one is that his decision to move, like that of many Americans, is not driven by some innate desire to be closer to your own political party, but rather by the simple and noble search for a community where they belong and a place that matches their desired way of life. I hadn’t previously given much thought to the migration patterns of Americans. As Bishop also admits, “this was not an area of concern for most of those who wrote about politics.” That was until he met Robert Cushing, a sociologist and statistician in Texas. They, along with a small group of researchers, began to look more closely at the impact American migration patterns were having on local economies, cultural shifts, and political partisanship. What they found, they characterized as “the big sort.”

“Between 4 and 5% of the US population moves each year from one county to another—100 million Americans in the past decade.” (pg. 5) Another point Bishop makes early on in the book is that we, as citizens, actually do not live in states. We live in communities. We “have clustered in communities of sameness, among people with similar ways of life, beliefs, and in the end, politics.” He continues “little, if any, of this political migration was by design, a conscious effort by people to live among like-voting neighbors.”

He also shares how some of the first people to realize these new clusters were not politicians, but rather marketers. Bishop cites J. Walker Smith, a marketing analyst who described the clustering as a new sort of “self-invention.” “ Technology, migration, and material abundance all allow people to wrap themselves into cocoons entirely of their own making. They’re unwilling to live with trade-offs so they recreate their environments to fit what they want in all kinds of ways, and one of the ways is they are finding communities that fit their values—where they don’t have to live with neighbors or community groups that might for them to compromise their principles or their tastes.”

One of the key indicators Bishop and his colleagues use to track the severity of clusters is how many voters live in landslide election areas—that is to say, somewhere that had ≥20% victory margins for one party or the other. In 1976, just over 26% of Americans lived in landslide counties. In 2004, that number had skyrocketed to almost 50%.

Bishop goes on to explain and eloquently discount the two previously dominant theories for the increased polarization in America: (1) a nefarious process of gerrymandering and (2) a political conspiracy by Republicans. Neither, he argues, appropriately account for the division. Rather, he posits a third theory might provide the most accurate answer to the question “what is driving America apart?”

A final theory that I offer to explain the decline in partisan competitiveness at the congressional district level rests on the increased mobility of Americans and the corresponding growth in the freedom to select where they will reside. (pg. 35) I won’t go much deeper into the book, as you should all grab yourself a copy, but Bishop has most certainly captured my attention. He has a remarkable way of conveying complex political and demographic shifts in terms that all can understand but without loss of nuance. If the first 35 pages are any indication, this will continue to be a page-turner for me.

For now, I’ll leave you with the quote from Daniel Gilbert’s *Stumbling on Happiness *that Bishop shares at the onset of the book’s introduction:

Most of us make at least three important decisions in our lives: where to live, what to do, and with whom to do it. Thanks as always for stopping by to read my daily thoughts. Please do let me know if you’d like to hear more about one topic or another. Drop me a line at jackcohenphotography@gmail.com or comment below.

See you tomorrow.