Reds vs Blues: America's two political tribes are at it again

Washington

IN his 2009 sci-fi novel The City & The City, British author China Miéville imagines two cities, Beszel and Ul Qoma, who occupy the same geographic space but whose residents speak different languages, use distinct alphabets, embrace divergent cultures, and even look and behave differently.

In fact, residents of Beszel or Ul Qoma walk alongside each other on the sidewalks and drive inches apart on the roads, but they are also able to "unsee" each other.