I’m not sure if this is a new lesson, but [campaigning for the American presidency] reinforced my belief that we’re not as divided as our politics would indicate. You meet with the average person—I don’t care whether they’re Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal—they don’t think in labels. They’re not particularly ideological. Everybody is sort of a mix of what you might consider some liberal ideas, what you might consider some conservative ideas. But there is a set of common values that everyone buys into: Everybody thinks you should have to work hard for what you get, everybody believes that things like equal opportunity should be real, not a slogan.
– Barack Obama from “A Conversation with Barack Obama”, Rolling Stone
