Battle of the Midway

The divide is America’s everything story. The most prominent is the political divide, which is driven in part by the economic divide. But the divide that doesn’t get enough coverage is the geographic divide. We live increasingly separate lives and the absence of real life interaction leaves a vacuum that can be filled with political bile and false characterizations by those with an interest in maintaining the division. Let’s head to Nashville for an example of a divide that cuts across a few lines. “Like many other Americans, Nashville residents are increasingly being buffeted by economic tides that push them into neighborhoods that are either much richer or much poorer than the regional norm … In Nashville, the share of families living in middle-class neighborhoods dropped by 15 percentage points between 1990 and 2020. But the portion of families in wealthy ones jumped by 11 points, and the segment living in poor neighborhoods grew by four points.” NYT (Gift Article): The Shrinking of the Middle-Class Neighborhood. (What we’re experiencing is a shrinking of the middle of everything except the middle finger we hold up towards one another.)

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