American cultural polarization

Overview
American cultural polarization, also referred to as "culture war" and "the red-blue divide", is the increasing tendency for American citizens to assume either of two conflicting political positions, loosely referred to as "liberal" (blue) and "conservative" (red).

Both poles argue that the views and actions of the other pole threaten America's freedom and survival.

Conservative position
The conservative view appears to be that:
 * liberals threaten America's freedom and survival by undermining its ability to fight effectively. (This argument makes some very simplistic assumptions which need to be looked at in more detail.)
 * liberalism threatens social integrity (and therefore the strength of American society) by continually working to relax and loosen many of the rules which keep it together

Liberal position
The liberal view is that a number of conservative tendencies pose these threats:
 * fighting without strategy, leading to:
 * vast amounts of waste (most recently in the US-Iraq War), contributing greatly to the current economic collapse
 * very rightly drives away our allies, in their dismay over needless destruction and civilian casualties
 * understandably drives neutrals into the hands of the "enemy", loosely described as "terrorists"
 * intolerance of other views, often expressed violently
 * threatens personal safety of many Americans, including liberals and those perceived to belong to certain other target groups (e.g. homosexuals, immigrants, Muslims)
 * is very much not in the spirit of America as liberals understand it
 * unwillingness to reconcile personal views with agreed or demonstrable facts, usually due to a perceived need to protect religious beliefs
 * undermines American science, which was until recently one of America's great strengths
 * leads people into bad personal decisions, further weakening the structure of society

this is a partial list

Reference

 * suggests that the appearance of culture war may be largely manufactured by the mainstream media as a self-promotion tactic
 * suggests that "culture war" is a loaded term used by the political right to imply that "real" American values are under attack by the forces of liberalism
 * : no equivalent page (as of 2009-02-15)
 * : no equivalent page (as of 2009-02-15)