JOHN ASHCROFT, the favorite bogeyman of liberals, is once reported to have said, "There are two things youfind in the middle of the road: a moderate and a dead skunk." While most Americans profess to abhor such naked partisanship, it may be the cost of greater civic engagement. During a recent Miller Center lecture, Mark Halperin, political director of ABC News, underscored the paradox underlying the country's increasing polarization: as we become better informed we also become more balkanized.
Despite promising to talk about "the way things are, rather than the way