First, I Think More Americans Need To

Whats Different Now Is That While Political Leaders Used To Give Talking Points To Talk Radio, Now Talk-radio Hosts Are Giving Talking Points To Political Leaders. Its All Part Of The Suffocating Spin Cycle Were In. In Media, Politics And Publishing, The Conventional Wisdom Is To Play To This Base.

What Might Be Good For Ratings Can Be Bad For The Country. The Hard-core Partisans Are Self-segregating Themselves Into Separate Political Realities. But The Majority Of Americans Are Starting To Wake Up To The Game.

Our Politics Are Being Hijacked By A Comparatively Small Number Of People Who Seek To Dominate The Debate By Screaming The Loudest. They See The World As An Urgent Struggle Between True Believers And Nonbelievers. They Attempt To Impose Strict Litmus Tests And Insist On Conformity. They Demonize Dissent And Consider All Political Opponents Their Enemies. Fear Is Their Favourite Tactic As They Try To Divide And Conquer

We Cannot Hope To Change Human Nature. There Will Always Be Cranks And Conspiracy Theorists Among Us. But We Can Try To Improve Things - We Don't Have To Accept The Debasement Of Civil Discourse Or Civic Decline. We Can Take Steps To Ensure That The Lunatic Fringe Remains On The Fringe And Stops Bleeding Into The Base And Then Poisoning The Mainstream

First, I Think More Americans Need To Declare Their Independence From Partisan Politics On Both Sides. The More That Americans Declare Their Independence, The More The Parties Will Have To Compete For Their Votes Using Reason Rather Than The Hateful Appeals.