Well, belatedly, I did ask myself the question you suggest. The conclusion I came to is that, perhaps, Fox and others of its ilk, find it just too easy to build their following by appealing to the basest of our instincts rather than the highest of our ideals.

Angry left monomania on Fox News really makes me think that they must be onto something over there. I thought this site was supposed to be a celebration of journalism by other means. Well, that’s what they’re doing: introducing conventional conservative bias to counterbalance all the conventional leftist bias of CNN, ABC, NYT, AJC, etc. Their voice is a welcome addition to the reporting spectrum and their ratings reflect that. But you have to call them racists, “intolerant” or hate-mongers or whatever to discount the facts they report against your dear leaders. I don’t go telling all my buddies to watch Glenn Beck, but I’ll give him his journalistic due for Van Jones and Fox’s justifiable reporting on concerns about ACORN. Because, as we have seen, CNN, ABC, NYT, AJC, etc., don’t care what they do as long as they support Obama. What you all need to ask yourselves is why is Fox News so popular, much more so than CNN or any other TV news network. If you want to stick to your comfortable old chestnuts about how the U.S. is just a racist country, well, don’t expect folks on the other side to take you seriously at all. You’re the ones increasing the cultural divisiveness by dismissing political opposion as heretical and therefore invalid.

You keep writing articles about “why can’t we get our liberal message across to shout down the tea-baggers?” Well, the answer most people in the country don’t want gov’t power expanded any more than it already is. Gov’t spending as a percentage of GDP is approaching 50% and yet you all still post here day after day a tired list of problems that the gov’t still must solve for you. I am pleased that Americans in large numbers across demographic lines passionately resist your efforts to emote away our tax dollars. And the mainstream conservative line is not eliminate gov’t. That’s just more worthless angry left hyperbole to discredit conservatives yet again because you have no real counter-arguments to advance. No, what conservatives what is sustainable gov’t, with balanced budgets and protection of Constitutional liberties and the limits on central gov’t power implied by those same liberties. Now I can hear your fingers slipping off the drool-covered B, U, S and H keys on your computers — but many conservatives did not support him on steel tarrifs, increasing Medicare’s insolvency, and general leftist spending appeasement strategy. But every time the angry left and their lapdog media outlets try to foist another Obama upon us to create more useless bureaucracy, undermine private property rights and make the country less economically competitive … well, expect to get an earful. You don’t have to like it, but at least try to resist your petulant urges to bleat “racist.” When everyone’s a racist, then no one is.

Speaking as a historian who has dealt with the history of violence, revolution, and terrorism since early times, I can say that the world has always been a nasty and violent place. The Gandhis of history are rare individuals and must be remembered, cherished, and imitated. Today is a good day to start.