America's fracture line

(Paris) Le Monde

Like no president before him, [President Bush] has exacerbated the American fracture line. On the coasts and big cities, there is a rather liberal political tradition, built out of tolerance in moral matters, where one isn't necessarily convinced that the country personifies The Truth and The Good. In the South and inland, there is a political culture increasingly marked by religion where traditional family values are valued as highly as hyper-nationalist patriotism, and the Bible and "The Star Spangled Banner" stand as a manifesto. On one side, the democratic nation; on the other, the republican nation. And in between them, less and less in common.