摘要：1]Fiorina's book, dedicated "to the tens of millions of Americans who have never heard of the culture war," is a crisply written and passionately argued case that "culture war" is a myth imposed upon Americans by our political and intellectual elites. The concept, Fiorina holds, is useful for political leaders in mobilizing voters, for interest group leaders in mobilizing contributors, and for journalists and pundits in attracting readers and viewers. Not only do elites have an interest in perpetuating the notion of a culture war, the insular character of America's elite-driven politics leaves elites disconnected from those millions of mainstream Americans whose pragmatism and common sense leave them thoroughly uninterested in culture war. In spite of America's pragmatic mainstream, the danger of the culture war thesisis that it may become a "self-fulfilling prophecy." Fiorina's project is to short-circuit the fulfillment of this dismal prophecy by demonstrating that the "facts" do not support the conclusion that America is in the midst of a culture war.[2]Fiorina begins with the proposition that the U.S. is a "50/50" or "red vs. blue" nation. To be sure, American national elections have been closely contested since 1996, but Fiorina helpfully points out that this is not necessarily a sign of deep division. While it is conceivable that our nation is "closely anddeeply divided" it is also possible that we are "closely but notdeeply divided." Fiorina accepts the latter conclusion, finding on the basis of a Pew Forum survey that "very little difference exists statistically between residents of red and blue states." On religious and moral measures, Fiorina cautions, "The difference is statistically significant, but it hardly conjures up an image of two coalitions of deeply opposed states engaged in a culture war" (21). Fiorina may well be correct in concluding that talk of a "50/50" nation has been overwrought, but his argument begs the question of exactly whatstatistical evidence, if any, would allow social scientists to conclude that a culture war exists; the standard of statistical significance is imposed by the internal logic of mathematics, not by any particular insight into the requisites of political or social cohesion
