Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Someone mentioned George Carlin up thread.  This reminded me of his bit...

"Now listen, as long as we’re discussing minorities, I’d like to mention something about language.

There are a couple of terms being used a lot these days by guilty white liberals. First one is “happens to be”... “He happens to be black. I have a friend who happens to be black.” Like it’s a fucking accident you know?

Happens to be black?
“Yes, he happens to be black.”
Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he had two black parents?
“Oh yes, yes he did. Yes, that’s right.”
Right, and they fucked?
“Oh indeed they did... indeed they did.”

So where does the surprise part come in? I should think it would be more unusual if he just happened to be Scandinavian!

And the other term is “openly.” “Openly gay.” They say “he’s openly gay.” But that’s the only minority they use that for. You know, you wouldn’t say someone was “openly black.” ... well maybe James Brown... or Louis Farrakhan; Louis Farrakhan is openly black. Colin Powell is not openly black, Colin Powell is openly white; he just happens to be black."

I think some of this speaks to a burning desire to be mad very often. Like, even when a news outlet sort of speaks to your extremity, it won’t always. (Weirdly, sports is the great test case for all this)

In my view, both parties benefit from keeping us "incensed", it means we're more likely to donate time and money to their cause and vote.  A lot of issue could be resolved with some compromise, but neither party really wants to do that, so they keep as many hot buttons alive as possible to get "support", their worst nightmare is an ambivalent electorate, folks reasonably content.

It's not the parties.  The parties are neutered.  If the parties were that strong, Bernie Sanders--a registered Socialist--would not have even been under consideration by the Democrats, and Donald Trump--who had spent most of his life as a registered Democrat--would not have been able to take over the Republican Party as he did.
A big part of the problem is primaries.  Primaries mostly attract the extremists--the true-blue-fanatics--of each party.  Back in the days when elders met in smoke-filled rooms to pick the nominees, you didn't get candidates like those two.
Yet another Progressive Era reform that we would be better off without.

I don't disagree with that.  They function basically as money-raisers and little else.  If Chairman Mao or Adolf Hitler is the candidate chosen by the extremists in their base, they'll raise money for him by generating anger about what the other party is going.