"The public isn't any more polarized, the candidates are more polarizing," says Evans. "The people who want to represent us represent more extreme perspectives."

He and others who study social trends say, if anything, Americans have grown more consensual rather than divergent about matters such as their belief in God, patriotism and the importance of family. While those areas of agreement don't always translate over to social and political values, Americans, fundamentally, are more alike than not.

And even when they do differ, it's not always a bad thing, right?

"Division is better than apathy," says Eliza Keller, a high school senior in New Hampshire. In the same breath the teen admits the election skewed her view of the grown-up world she'll soon enter.

Can the differences be bridged, as Bush and Kerry now suggest? This might be one area of agreement among those on all sides.

Not likely, they say.

Views so deeply rooted in moral doctrine — however a person chooses to interpret "moral" — aren't likely to change. But Americans suggest they and the nation's leaders could do more to forge, if not compromise or agreement, at least some understanding — a way to live together in a society of opposing convictions.

"Learn to accept people the way they are, not how you would like them to be," says Santa McKenna, a Cuban-American hairdresser in Florida.

"Be more substantive in what we say . . . rather than attacking people personally," says Jerry Folk, a Lutheran minister in Wisconsin.

Sociologist Evans' advice? "Burn all the red and blue maps."

'Agree to disagree'

On those maps, Arizona was painted scarlet. But in one neighborhood, on one street, no one would ever have guessed it.

The Kerry signs sprung up first on Edgemont Avenue. Then, the signs reading "Viva Bush."

Within hours of Kerry's concession speech, almost all of them were gone — except for two on either side of the flagstone walkway leading to the home of Kerry-supporter Linda MacConnell and Bush-supporter Paul Mudd.

Shortly before the election, MacConnell came home to find a "Bush-Cheney" placard stuck in her lawn. She quickly plucked it up, stormed inside and told her husband: "If that sign stays up in MY front yard, I'll be sleeping in a hotel tonight."

A short while later, the sign was back — along with one for Kerry. MacConnell put both up, telling her husband: I was wrong. You have every right to voice your opinion.

So how will they bridge the divide? "You know what it comes down to? Liberal or conservative or whatever — we're all Americans," MacConnell says. "We're a country based on diversity. . . . It would be boring if we all wanted the same thing."

Mudd puts it another way: "Agree to disagree."

Can the rest of America do the same?

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Contributing: AP writers Allen G. Breed, Sharon Cohen, Jeff Donn, Adam Goldman, Deborah Hastings, Todd Lewan, Connie Farrow and Bobby Ross Jr.