Read John Leo's article on Putnam's intellectual dishonesty here.
What he found was that:
people [living] in [culturally] diverse communities tend “to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more, but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television.”What struck me upon reading Putnam's description of the alienated inhabitants of diverse environs is that there is nothing new in this. I have seen similar things taking place on college campuses as rising minority enrollments have fostered the development of ethnic cliques that seldom interact with others. My second response was to note that Putnam's description closely resembles the picture of the average Democrat. As numerous studies have shown, on average Democrats tend to be less socially involved than Republicans, contribute less of their time and money to charity, are less politically aware, are less likely to vote, and are more likely to respond positively to reform agendas [thus revealing an intense dissatisfaction with America as it is]. It is Democrats, not Republicans, who have responded en masse to Satan's siren call to "see things as they never were and ask, 'Why Not?'"
If Putnam wants to identify the reasons for the decline of social capital in America, he should look to his ideological allies on the Left, and to the diversity mongers who encourage the kinds of group think that is producing what Arthur Schlesinger called "The Disuniting of America."
