The Vanishing Battleground

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/sunday-review/the-vanishing-electoralbattleground.html?_r=0 The Vanishing Battleground By ADAM LIPTAK NOV. 3, 2012 Washington IN the razor-thin 1960 presidential election, John F. Kennedy campaigned in 49 states. Richard M.... More

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/sunday-review/the-vanishing-electoralbattleground.html?_r=0 The Vanishing Battleground By ADAM LIPTAK NOV. 3, 2012 Washington IN the razor-thin 1960 presidential election, John F. Kennedy campaigned in 49 states. Richard M. Nixon visited all 50. The current contest is just as close and intense, but the candidates have campaigned in only 10 states since the political conventions. There are towns in Ohio that have received more attention than the entire West Coast. The shrinking electoral battleground has altered the nature of American self-governance. There is evidence that the current system is depressing turnout, distorting policy, weakening accountability and effectively disenfranchising the vast majority of Americans. “It’s a new way to run a country,” says Bill Bishop, co-author of “The Big Sort,” a 2008 book that examined the most important cause of the trend: the recent tendency of like-minded people to live near one another. That demographic shi Less