Talk radio, however, continues to polarize our country. When we demonize the other, we lose the ability to make rational compromises. Not only does it sadly lower the intellectual content of discourse in our public sphere, it also spreads falsehoods.

ACORN conspiracies… birthers… heck, even in 2006, half the country believed we had found WMDs in Iraq (http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?pid=684).

A year or two after 9/11, I was driving home for work late one evening and listened to the radio–someone aptly named Savage. He said, and I am not making this up (apologies to D. Barry), that killing a liberal would be a patriotic act.

I believe talk radio is a big part of America’s problem. Sometimes conservatives in their zeal for individual rights forget that their right to swing their fists ends at my nose. Suggesting that killing me would be a patriotic act is abhorrent, and while Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. might not go quite that far, I don’t believe they’re promoting respectful dialogue, either.