If George Bush's presidency has not convinced us America is a foreign country, last week's Democrat convention at Boston left no room for doubts. Democrats may be first ideological cousins to New Labour, but their presidential candidate, John Kerry, opened his acceptance speech with a military metaphor that could never be used by a European counterpart: 'I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty'.
Republicans insist that Democratic values - pre-eminence of science, affirmative action and instinctive multilateralism - are anti-American and anti-patriotic, but the central taunt is that Democrats are soft on defence and security. Kerry's metaphor - from a stage filled with veterans from Vietnam - was well chosen.
The US has hardened into two virulently opposed ideological and cultural camps that are almost equal in numbers. On the two seaboards, around the Great Lakes, in the north east and some cities of the south, the Democrats have their base: mildly progressive, multilateralist, tolerant and fair-minded. In the south, the Rocky Mountains and the plains lie the Republican base: religious fundamentalists, fervent believers in America's unilateralist destiny and culturally conservative. This is 50:50 America
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