11/11/2004

Polarization Shmolarization

From BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis: "

Robert Samuelson says in the Washington Post that it's not red v. blue or issue v. issue; it's psychological:

'Every liberal [thinks he's] intellectually superior to conservatives,' Paul Begala, a former Clinton administration official, remarked on CNN. 'Every conservative I know wants to think of himself as morally superior.' Though these are generalizations (as Begala admitted), they represent real psychological imperatives. Politics increasingly strives to feed these self-images.

The easiest way to make your people feel better is to cast their people as immoral, stupid, evil, corrupt or greedy. Politics, news and entertainment merge, because all seek to satisfy psychological needs....

Although America isn't polarized, our political and media elites are working hard to make it so.

Amen."