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The theme of The Great Divide is that the populations of the democratic world, from Boston to Berlin, Vancouver to Venice, are becoming increasingly divided from within, due to a growing ideological incompatibility between modern liberalism and conservatism. This is partly due to a complex mutation in the concept of liberal democracy itself, and the resulting divide is now so wide that those holding to either philosophy on a whole range of topics on democracy, on reason, on abortion, on human nature, on homosexuality and gay marriage, on freedom, on the role of courts ? and much more, can barely speak with each other without outrage the favorite emotional response from all sides. Clearly, civil conversation at the surface has been failing -- and that could mean democracy is failing.