The great divide

IT IS easy to see how blue-state residents may be feeling out of touch with the rest of the country: the great red-state heartland that carried President Bush to a second term. All those pro-Bush voters saying they were concerned about "values" issues that include opposition to abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research can feel like a punch in the gut -- a repudiation of blue-state values.

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But even in the shadow of defeat, blue states have reason to be proud. In a country where cultural identities can be claustrophobic, blue states are home to great cities where people find freedom in the streets of Boston or New York or Chicago to transcend conventional expectations and become most fully themselves.

"A black guy, a gay guy, and a painter walk into a bar . . " -- it sounds like the opening of a mocking joke about political correctness or big-city liberals or the ridiculous permissiveness of East and West Coast elites. But the blue heart of America thrives in such bars, where the door opens wide for all comers.

Massachusetts and other blue states are places where people come for vacations, educations, and new lives. Blue places brim with the drive to investigate and understand, to push through the walls of who we think we are to what we dream of becoming.

In Illinois, the state's new senator, Barack Obama, is interracial, son of a white American mother and a Kenyan father. More fascinating is his mix of red and blue sensibilities, the ways that his life embodies the best ideals of American freedom and opportunity and what this could mean for the nation's political future.

To assume that moral conviction is missing in blue states, eclipsed by academia, liberal permissiveness, and seemingly evil Hollywood values, is intellectually lazy. In fact, blue states have a profound moral core that reaches back to abolition and forward to international peace and justice. Creativity, innovation, and technology thrive while people of good will debate how best to balance this progress against the ethical and physical needs of human beings.

Blue state residents can say with grace that they are parents, workers, neighbors, and also proud Americans. They can and must say that they, too, have a passion to do what is fair and just.

There is nothing like losing a major political contest to reveal the potential that outsiders and underdogs have to push and prod the country forward, refusing to settle, offering new ideas and compelling alternatives to the status quo.

Are some blue state residents out of touch with most of the country? Yes. But this can be a virtue. It helps make substantial contributions to the great and enduring American tradition of change.