[MalcolmS]

I do think that, the >private<, non-partisan practices of the affluent suburbs and chic urban districts are actually intensely socially conservative. No one is more militant about property values, about keeping the unfit or unpleasant out of their neighborhoods and their kids schools, about getting rid of crime ... and I can't believe that there's anywhere in the Bible Belt that would look more askance at unwed teenage mother in the neighborhood than would >my< very typical middle-class New Jersey suburban neighborhood.

I've been trying to understand. Are you equating the "peer pressure" discussed in the article with social conservatism? Social pressure need not be inherently liberal or conservative. For example, the social pressure exemplified by the whole political correctness phenomenon is definitely not conservative.

[only1percent]

I think that a significant error is made to associate, on the one hand, the sort of social pressure which restricts divorce and other socially destructive practices, and, on the other hand, the sort of overt social conservativism to which it seemed the author was alluding. In other words, the sort of community where 20% go to church weekly and 70% vote for Al Gore can be far more effective against divorce and illegitimacy than the community where 60% go to church weekly and 40% vote for Al Gore, if the former has higher incomes and better educations than the latter.