It's clearer and clearer to me that one of the most serious problems with the United States is that we participate in fewer face-to-face communities.
Author: Robert D. Putnam
Book: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Let’s sum up what we’ve learned about trends in political participation. On the positive side of the ledger, Americans today score about as well on a civics test as our parents and grandparents did, though our self-congratulation should be restrained, since we have on average four more years of formal schooling than they had.33 Moreover, at election time we are no less likely than they were to talk politics or express interest in the campaign.
