America's Cultural Clustering

In storybook America, when folks sit down at the barbeque, at the bar, at the town bowling alley, at the local cafe, they come in all political and cultural stripes.

Conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, independents — all rubbing elbows, pitching in their two cents, hashing out the way of a great democracy.

In real America today, says my guest Bill Bishop, Americans have increasingly moved into lockstep, like-minded communities where everybody's politics are the same and conversations are more echo chamber than real exchange. He calls it "the big sort."

This hour, On Point: Bill Bishop on the dangers of a cookie-cutter America.Guests:

Bill Bishop, former reporter for the Austin American-Statesman and author of "The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart"

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly.