Arlington, Va. (UPI) May 20, 2008 – The conventional wisdom about American politics is that the nation has become deeply polarized since the Vietnam War, with voters increasingly crowding to opposite extremes of the political spectrum. For example, the May 11 New York Times contained an essay by William A. Galston and Pietro S. Nivola of the Brookings Institution that stated in its opening paragraph, “Our research concludes not only that the ideological differences between the political parties are growing but also that they have become embedded in American society.”