David Brooks writes in The New York Times about “America’s New Segregation.” He isn’t talking about racial segregation but instead is focusing on class segregation. Essentially, we are talking about self-segregation.

He quotes the book Diminished Democracy which observed that Americans used to join cross-class community organizations like the Rotary or the Elks clubs. But gradually, highly educated people left them for professional organizations filled with others more like themselves.

Dan McLaughlin agrees with David Brooks but then adds another important reason. First, he agrees with him and points to the Veterans of Foreign Wars which crossed class lines because military service was a common experience. But that began to change during the Vietnam War when college deferments meant that college-going young men could avoid the draft.

Second, Dan McLaughlin points to another reason Brooks did not mention: ideology. “Progressive lawsuits, pressure campaigns, and marches through the institutions had a lot to do with killing cross-class institutions, especially those that once served men. The Boy Scouts are Exhibit A of this dynamic: dads and sons camping in the woods and learning knots and archery and the like was once an activity where it didn’t matter if your dad was a surgeon or a bricklayer.”

When the Boy Scouts were formed, they represented so much of what was good about America. Less than a century later, they went from being one of the most admired groups to one of the most vilified groups.

Our polarized political world is due to many factors, but an important one is the self-segregation that has taken place in society.