I should add that a defining year was 1987, 30 years ago. The Bork confirmation and Iran Contra hearings, plus the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. All three sent the left overboard.
Totally agree with you on Bork - that was the major turning point, the single biggest thing I can point to in my lifetime, when the media permanently and irrevocably forsook facts and reason for ideology and politics.
The anti-Trumpism of today might be even worse and stupider in magnitude, but it was the Bork thing that set us in this direction. The left has been borking Trump for two years now, but it’s not working...
When someone complains about political tone and divisiveness in American politics, dump a manure-load of blame on Ted Kennedy.
I had the great fortune (I guess?) of being physically present in the Senate gallery the day Ted Kennedy gave his famous “Bork’s America” speech... complete with giant posters. It was disgusting. All I could do not to yell at him.