To the Point
To the Point
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Presidential Politics in a Changing America

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America as a whole is more diverse than ever before, but it’s increasingly crowded with cities—even neighborhoods--where everybody thinks like everybody else. What does that mean for the presidential campaigns? Is "political unification" a distant dream? Also, an update on a sluggish economy, and the life and death of Albert Hofman, who accidentally discovered LSD and started the "psychedelic generation."

Making News

A Recession Despite Economic Growth? ()

Just yesterday, President Bush refused to use the word "recession," which traditionally means two consecutive quarters of economic decline. Today, the government reported that the Gross Domestic Product did grow at the end of last year, but only by six-tenths of a percent.  Kelly Evans writes for the Wall Street Journal.

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Main Topic

Opposites Don't Attract: ()

Presidential candidates appeal to the "working class" and "ordinary people" with the promise of unifying America for the "common good." But that turns out to mean different things in different places, and it's not just a matter of Red States versus Blue. Wealth and mobility have freed Americans to move wherever they want to and they end up with people just like themselves, culturally as well as politically. What might sound obvious turns out to be an index of major change over the past 30 years.  Is segregation-by-lifestyle dividing cities and neighborhoods? Whatever happened to "class?" Is political unification possible any more?

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Reporter's Notebook

Swiss Chemist Who Discovered LSD Dies at 102 ()

Dr. Timothy Leary got fame in the 1960's by encouraging people to "turn on, tune in and drop out."  The drug that produced the "psychedelic generation" was LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide.  The man who accidentally discovered it died today at the age of 102.  Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally took the world's first acid trip in 1943, as part of his search for a drug that would stimulate the respiratory and circulatory systems. Rick Doblin is founder and president of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

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  • Rick Doblin: President and Founder, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

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