John White's fascinating new book explores the increasingly dominant role values play in today's public and private life, concluding that a serious rift in political and cultural values in America produced the astounding tie between George W. Bush and Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. White argues that while politically important, the present “values divide" goes much deeper than cultural conflicts between Republicans and Democrats. Today, citizens are reexamining their own intimate values––including how they work, live, and interact with each other––while the nation’s population is rapidly changing. Collectively the answers to these value questions, White contends, have remade both American politics and the popular culture.

Features

• Current––takes stock of the national mood in the aftermath of September 11th.
• Thorough––compiles extensive current public opinion polling data from the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut at key moments in recent American history including during the Columbine tragedy, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, Clinton's impeachment, and the Election of 2000 to present a snapshot of American values at the outset of the 21st century.
• Insightful––provides a compelling explanation for the outcome of Election 2000 and the prospects for the Republican and Democratic political agendas over the long term.

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Foreword by John J. Zogby
Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Values Divide
Reverberations in the Echo Chamber
The Values Divide
Into the Mouths of Babes: The Stories of George W. Bush and Al Gore
From Reagan to Clinton: The Insertion of Values into the Public Square
The Plan of the Book

1. Four Stories for Our Time
1. We Are Family
2. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Redux
3. The Shaming of the (More Popular) President
4. The Inverted Election
Values Matter Most

2. Whose Country?
Strangers at the White House
The Death of the Establishment
The Future Arrives Ahead of Schedule
The New American Dream
Whose Country?
The Private Public

3. Republicans and the Politics of Virtue
The Death of Libertarianism?
The New Republican "Theocrats" and the Politics of Virtue
The Backlash
The Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal and the Republican Theocrats
Authoritative or Authoritarian?

4. Democrats and the Lingering Legacy of Bill Clinton
The Gipper and the Comeback Kid
"I Want My Presidency Back"
The Shaming of the President
Private Values, Public Morality, and the Plight of the Democratic Party
A Tattered Legacy

5. Campaign 2000: One Nation, Divisible
The Values Candidates
The Two Nations
The Denouement

6. The Father-Knows-Best President and the Return of Four-Party Politics
The Father-Knows-Best President
The Return of Four-Party Politics
The New Democratic Presidential Party
The New Republican Presidential Party
The New Republican Congressional Party
Big Questions, Small-Minded Politics

7. We're All Americans Now
The New Normalcy
George W. Bush and the New "Us" versus "Them" Politics
The Global Reach of American Culture
A Persistent Values Divide
A Rebirth of Tolerance?

Notes
Index