Speaking as a non-American (if there even is such a thing anymore) I found the top-rated comment at the end of that article to be as poignant as the article itself. "Kurt" is politically opposed to Friedman, but he agrees wholeheartedly that social blocs in the US are becoming increasingly isolated by ideology: "[L]iberals don't know any conservatives and vice versa, so we do not engage or compromise with each other but instead demonize." Both sides of the mainstream media have contributed to this by slanting their coverage to accommodate the biases of their audience in an attempt to secure eroding market share. The result is rabid public dialogue with no middle ground, moronic discourse and a massively disaffected voting public, which in turn leads to further alienation of and resentment among the disenfranchised.