South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

The Pew Research Center published an article in 2021 that identified the US’s rising political divisions as “exceptional”:

The studies we’ve conducted at the Pew Research Center over the past few years illustrate the increasingly stark disagreement between Democrats and Republicans on the economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, international engagement, and a long list of other issues (Dimock, Michael & Wike, Richard. “America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide.” Pewtrusts.org. 29 March 2021).

These intersecting issues inform Perry’s reflections on America’s contemporary political polarization.

Political polarization in the US is geographical, but referring to this division in geographic terms does not simply mean that the North is separated from the South. This polarization also divides urban from rural areas. Race and class also play critical roles in understanding contemporary political divisions. In 2020, the Brookings Institute published findings that show “movement toward the Democratic Party in rapidly urbanizing suburbs is shifting America’s partisan fault line from a long-standing urban-rural divide to an emerging split between metro areas and the rest of the state” (Damore, David F., Lang, Robert E., & Danielsen, Karen. “In 2020, the largest metro areas made the difference for Democrats.