The two parties are still more polarized than ever before and the rise of partisan media is an important reason for it.

I'm an independent. I'm a centrist. A new generation is arriving that has grown up with a multiplicity of choice in every aspect of their lives, and yet politics is the last place that they are told that they should be satisfied with a choice between brand A and brand B. It doesn't fit the way they think. It doesn't fit the way they live.

Right now, politics follows the rules of talk radio - using conflict, tension, fear, and resentment to find new recruits.

The American people are smart. They've gotten sick of the predictable hyperpartisan talking points and canned anger.

By pumping up hyper-partisanship, our country (America) is playing with forces that can easily get out of control. We are giving purpose and cover - and sometimes a sense of purpose - to the crazy among us. We are encouraging a culture of extremism

We need to punch back against the extremes of both the left and the right and define the terms of the debate ourselves.

A wingnut is someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of the political spectrum - the professional partisans, the unhinged activists and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They're the people who always try to divide rather than unite us.