It seems to me that, despite slogans to the contrary, what has made America strong has been a commonality of values and a belief that we were Americans first and foremost. However, in recent years we have been bombarded with an greater emphasis on our differences than our similarities (as a way of dividing us into segmented groups competing with each other for a larger slice of the pie). Can the American experiment survive this fractionation, or will it face the inevitable disintegration that has befallen other attempts at pluralistic confederation?