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• Wednesday, November 7, 2007 06:16 AM

  Ridiculous

  The problems Sunstein cites all have their genesis in the antiquated traditional media, not the Internet. The Clinton impeachment was in fact ridiculous; but the vast majority of American people rejected it while the traditional media in lockstep had the vapors over a middle-aged man's marital infidelity. Don't like that Rush followers call themselves "dittoheads"? Well blame monopolistic radio ownership then. Karl Rove is a menace? Well, Lee Atwater was much better at it (he didn't lost elections consistently) and he predated the mass Internet.

  All the problems with polarization Sunstein cites have been with us for not decades but centuries. What is new is that the center and left for the first time in decades actually have some voice, so things only seem more polarized. And in fact the nation is nowhere near as polarized as Mr. Sunstein says; we are largely in agreement on Iraq, healthcare, the economy. It is simply that a minority opinion gets more airtime and a bigger megaphone, so it seems like internecine squabbling.

  The Internet has produced as a percentage of the population the largest group of informed citizens since pre-Revolutionary times - possibly more. The problem is not the message, the messengers, or the new media, but the ownership of old media and lack of true representative democracy.

  —Anonymous
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