Cass R. Sunstein, Columnist

Conservatives Know the Value of Thinking Locally

An age-old assumption about the political divide proves true, and turns out to have geometric underpinnings.

Local focus.

Photographer: Shaun Heasley/Getty Images
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What divides the right and the left? Not 50 years ago, or 20 or even 10 years ago, but right now?

Here’s one speculation: Conservatives tend to be localists; they focus on their families, their towns, their states and their nation. Progressives are far more likely to be universalists who focus on human beings as such.