Democracy in America

(we'll get to Tocqueville later)

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State. James Madison, Federalist 10 (November 1787)

Although he foresaw factional divisions as the inevitable result of an inevitably unequal distribution of wealth rather than, say, as a tivo-driven phenomenon (skip to the second segment of the episode; unfortunately the digg link isn't working for me), Madison’s Federalist 10 masterpiece, despite its wildly inaccurate forecasting of upcoming "improper or wicked project[s]", remains among the more prescient of the founding era documents.

Don't believe it? Find me a single public debate of any consequence in American history that isn't rife with disinformation, misinformation, and childish name calling.

We'll skip over the controversies surrounding Jay's Treaty, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the election of 1800, and just about all of the other mis- and disinformed public name calling sessions of the succeeding 209 years and note just a few of the most prominent examples of the "propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts." (also Federalist 10)

1796: Legend-in-his-own-time George Washington, opting for "greatest man who ever lived" status over the rigors of a unanimously elected third term, receives a letter from Thomas Paine concluding thusly: "And as to you, Sir, treacherous in private friendship (for so you have been to me, and that in the day of danger) and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any." The Correspondence of Thomas Paine (July 30, 1796)

History appears to have decided in Washington's favor.

1864: On the tamer side of pro-slavery propaganda, we have "An Amalgamation Waltz," forced miscegenation being the death panels of its day.2009: This health care town hall clip is pretty tame compared to most of the “moment of zen” footage that’s been popping up over the past few months, although the socialism joker icon really adds something.

Madison reminds us that, "As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed," the result seeming to be that the same system that took three score and sixteen years to outlaw chattel slavery simultaneously defends itself against the tides of 1793, 1917, 1933, and even 2001. The same cacophony of idiots that makes sensible health care reform impossible also seems to militate against similarly lasting negative changes. 

I'm not saying Glenn Beck isn't an idiot; I (likely unlike Madison) won't even concede that he serves some twisted higher purpose; I'm just saying he isn't an aberration.