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In a Washington Post editorial today, Robert Samuelson reacts to author Bill Bishop's caution in his new book, The Big Sort: namely, that Americans are increasingly segregating themselves by social and political values into so-called "lifestyle ghettos."  Samuelson soft-pedals Bishop's claim that this trend is exacerbating political polarization and endangering our long-held commitment e pluribus unum, but other commentators lend Bishop's concern greater weight. 

An article in The Economist highlights the impact of ideological balkanization on education:  "the home-schooling movement, which has grown rapidly in recent decades, shields more than 1 million American children from almost any ideas their parents dislike."  The worry about home-schoolers, who represent only a tiny proportion of school-age children in the United States, may be overstated. But the proliferation of vouchers, charter schools, virtual schools and the like does raise questions about our ability to forge at least some national unity in an ideologically diverse nation.   

Checker Finn at the Fordham Foundation pondered this issue in July.