Americans More Alike Than Different?

[DoctorStrangelove]

In America Against The World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes (Pew Research Center) conclude that:

"Americans are far more alike than different from one another" (219).

Given the sharp differences between Democrats and Republicans, this would seem to be only half the story. Do you agree or disagree with Kohut and Stokes conclusion? Why?

Thank you for your time.

Note:

My intention here is not to be a 'troll' or create argument for argument's sake.

[Warpy]

1. Go to another country, even Canada

Yep, we're different.

It's what every traveler says after coming back from exploring his roots, "I just found out I'm an American."

[gobblechops]

2. Most

Conservatives I talk to when it comes to issues are liberals who don't know it,the difference tends to be racist,sexist or religious fundamentalism that drives them into the other party


I would have to say the biggest difference is simply critical thinking with out psychopathic
tendencies.


show me a person who is not psychopathic and is a critical thinker then you got your self a liberal,so maybe we are not very different after all.

[KansDem]

3. One thing I've changed in my thinking since Vietnam is that I am often more alike with "the enemy"

...than I am with my next door neighbor.

Seriously, my generation was raised hating the communists. I remember thinking the Soviets were soooo evil and hellbent on destroying us. I can remember hearing about Oswald's funeral being attended by a few family and friends and wondering how can anybody attend the funeral of that monster, that communist!

But, I was a child and these beliefs are difficult to overcome.

I now wonder if I have more in common with the common Iraqi than I do with the neighbors on my block. I wonder if the average Iraqi father and homeowner has the same worries and concerns that I do. I wonder why I should be supportive of the White House madman when he kills Iraqi fathers and their familes and destroys their homes. What do I have in common with Bush? Nothing, that I can see. I don't think he worries about his kids, his mortgage, his debts and bills. I don't think he worries about the cost of gas or how to send his kids to college. I'm sure these concerns and worries are a part of the average Iraqi father's daily routine. Not Bush, though, and yet I'm supposed to identify with him? Or the GOP?

I wonder about how I would have acted if I were a Veitnam vet returning to the U.S. after having been part of killing Vietnamese, a people with whom I would have had no quarrel. And how I would feel returning from Iraq and realized I had no quarrel with these people but I was part of killing (to date) over 650,000 of them. Why? Many of them were fathers just like me with families and mortgages. Why are we killing them?

And I wonder how I would react to my present neighbor, with whom I have an acrimonious relationship for some 16 years. I have more contempt and dislike for him than I do any Iraqi (or Vietnamese for that matter). I wonder if I had tasted death with people with whom I have no quarrel halfway around the world, how would I react to someone next door if I disliked or felt threatened by that person, particularly if I felt I had absolutely nothing in common with him.

It makes no sense, but I wonder...