- In Jefferson County, people are more likely to live near people who disagree with them politically, according to PredictWise’s analysis of political leanings at the census-block level. People are also more likely to be married to the enemy than in other places: About one in every four couples is politically mixed, according to PredictWise. By contrast, in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, which includes Boston and ranked as the most politically intolerant county in the analysis, only one in every 10 couples is politically mixed.
The United States has gotten much more sorted, geographically and socially. People are less likely to date and marry across political lines. Since 1973, the rate of politically mixed marriages in America has declined by 50 percent. Neighbors are more likely to agree on politics than they were 15 years ago. This sorting leads to prejudice, as racial or religious segregation does. “Separation triggers a series of interlocking processes that inflame group conflict,” the social psychologist Thomas Pettigrew has written. “Negative stereotypes are magnified; distrust cumulates; and awkwardness typifies the limited intergroup interaction that does take place.”
It's been a little over six years so my memory doesn't serve me properly as far as conversations go. However, I do remember that there was a African American couple who moved across the street from us from the deep south. They were taken aback at how welcoming people were of them and told us stories of gang violence that they were used to hearing about in their proximity to Atlanta Georgia.