Horned Toads Can Shoot Blood Out of Their Eyes. This Has Nothing To Do With My Post, But It's Pretty Cool

The findings from these two sections of the Pew Research Center study are about as logical to me as the findings from the first two sections.

I think the one point that is most indicative of American society as a whole is the widening gap of viewers of Fox News and CNN along ideological lines.

It seems almost unfathomable to me that there was a time Republicans and Democrats watched Fox News at about the same frequency. But in the six years since this parity in 2000, the gap has jumped to 14 percent, with 34 percent of Republicans regularly watching compared with 20 percent of Democrats. It’s a wonder what being the first network to call the 2000 election for a Republican president will do for your stock with constituents of the Grand Old Party.

But apart from the effect of ballot confusion (or outright larceny, depending your view), this trend is a microcosm of a larger trend, which has been sweeping the nation since the beginning of Bush’s term(s), especially since Sept. 11 and the start of the Iraq war: the disappearance of the center in American politics.

It seems that politicians need to be radically left or radically right to get any recognition nowadays, and it’s this “you’re either with us or against us” mentality that makes me say a naughty word (I’ll give you a hint: it’s what comes out the back end of the sacred animal of Hinduism) when leaders on both sides now speak of bipartisan cooperation with a red White House and a blue Congress.

I’d like to think it’s going to be a piece of cake for everyone to take off their gloves and just get along, because that’s what is needed to truly better this country, but it’s not. The sniping of the last six years has been too nasty and the gulf is getting too wide. As Yo La Tengo says, “The damage is done.”

The findings of this study show me that not only are more people retreating further into their respective camps, but they’re content to stay there by patronizing the news as they want it to be told.

And by the way, since when has CNN been considered liberal? I’m asking this seriously, I don’t watch cable news.

I also found it interesting that while the gap of Fox News viewing has widened, the percent of Democrats tuning in has still increased. This is not so for CNN. I wonder if this is a sign of being a little more open-minded, or if it’s because more Democrats like a good dose of vitriol with their evening routines.