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Your argument would be more forceful if the hostility of the media were new.

I hear you, but one thing you "optimistic types" (if you don't mind me saying so) seem to not understand is the VOLUME of media that hits people in America today vs. 60-70 years ago when there was just a radio. And you also forget that Americans today are much more self-absorbed and intent on self gratification, and they seek no information, so they are more easily influenced by surface news coverage of events by the liberal media.

It's a real uphill struggle, and I think it may be lost.

We have to work, all of us.

"We have to work, all of us." You're right there. That's something about which we agree.

Unfortunately for the rest of your argument, the VOLUME of the media has been more than radio for a long time. The Republican landslide of 1994 happened notwithstanding all the media we have today (except the INTERNET, which is mainly OUR media). Likewise for every election since then.

And, no, I don't mind your calling me an optimist. I'm hopeless. I would long ago have tuned out politics or started using drugs if I weren't.

I remember when Barry Goldwater in 1960, after losing the GOP nomination to Nixon, made his "Conservatives, Grow Up" speech. I remember the debacle of Goldwater's defeat in 1964, and the disaster of the Johnson administration. I remember the Watergate era and its aftermath. Having lived through those dark days, I have a hard time today refraining from laughing with pleasure at the current situation. (Actually, I can't restrain myself-- though my unhappiness with domestic spending and some other domestic policies keep me from believing nirvana is here.)

Life is always a struggle, and civilization is always one generation from destruction, but pardon me if I giggle at the level of your fear that all is lost. I mean that in the nicest possible way, but your level of pessimism is just funny.