Steve Chapman on the myth of extreme political polarization. He points to cable news as a main culprit in promoting this false idea.
In my eyes cable news is MTV for people who want to feel politically relevant; it'll keep you updated and 'hip', but you will never actually learn anything of substance.
Cable news is like the Jerry Spring Show; entertaining for five minutes, discomforting after ten, and simpy nauseating after a half-hour.
I could do this all day.
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Cable news is like a trashy romance novel. It is dressed up as an intellectual pursuit, but all it does is get stupid people hot and bothered.
ReplyDeleteI do have a problem with the argument that 2/3 of Americans fall in the categories: slightly liberal, moderate, slightly conservative, or don't know. By definition, 2/3 of any group will fall in the middle of a bell curve. What we need is a stationary political spectrum to measure the American zeitgeist.
This is a tall order though considering the myriad misnomers in our political terminology, difficultly in data sampling, and sheer diversity of viewpoints.
My view, not based on any hard data, is that most Americans fall center right compared with the world. Specifically most Americans classify themselves as socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
Interesting wiki on academic definitions of political spectrums: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum#Academic_investigation