If I had to point to one institution in the US that has caused our politics to degenerate into partisanship and irrational viewpoints, I would choose Fox News.
Prior to Fox News, all of the major news networks tried to report the news objectively, not providing their own political slant. Yes, conservatives like to jabber about a liberal press, but studies show that this is not true, and honest conservatives (an oxymoron?) have admitted sometimes that the whole "liberal press" canard is more of a strategy than an honest complaint. The truth is, major networks tried to remain even-handed.
Fox News changed all that. For the first time, a major network was devoted to pushing one point of view no matter what, and that point of view is an extreme conservative one. (If you do not believe this, see my previous post. You do not know what you are talking about.) Fox News and other conservative outlets, like Rush Limbaugh, create a forum where conservatives can listen only to their own kind and hear only one side of every story. This pretty much guarantees that, on any issue, there will be a large conservative contingent that believes their side of the story, no matter how ridiculous, because a large organization with plenty of resources and a big viewership will push that story while pretending that they are actually reporting news, giving it credence in the minds of the gullible.
This constant advocacy has allowed us as a nation to debate the most clear-cut issues, such as whether torture is OK if the US does it, or whether experience as a small-town mayor qualifies you for Vice-President. It has allowed a large group of people to lose touch with reality and adopt positions that simply don't make sense. These people are what is left of the Republican Party.
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