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

What might be good for ratings can be bad for the country. The hard-core partisans are self-segregating themselves into separate political realities. But the majority of Americans are starting to wake up to the game.

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

Godwin's law states that the longer any online debate goes on, the likelier it is that someone will play the Nazi card. It's the rhetorical equivalent of going nuclear and stupid at the same time.

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.

When people tap into this politics of resentment, it usually ends ugly.

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