I'm really getting sick of people actually listening to political talk shows of whatever flavor and pretending that whatever is said on them carries any weight other than that of your standard, run-of-the-mill opinion. Opinions are highly overrated these days. In order to get one of these shows one has to be so entrenched in a single one-sided position that thought outside one's side's particular viewpoint is impossible- otherwise it would be a thoughtful discussion of issues, with no shouting other people down, and hey, that's bad for ratings. This leads to a show that is nothing but an exercise in identification for viewers- either, "Hey, someone on TV agrees with me! That means we're both right! Yay!" or "Hey, someone on TV disagrees with me! That means one of us is wrong! Boo!" That's all they have to offer. There is no actual real content, because that would disrupt the flow of animosity, but they try and pretend something of actual intellectual merit is going on- Jerry Springer Shows for people who try to pretend they're above watching Jerry Springer. If you're watching political talk shows, it's because you've already made your mind up about something, but you don't want to argue it yourself, you want someone else to argue it for you, and you want to watch- it's mental masturbation. These sorts of shows are not designed to make you think, they're designed to dig you further into whatever corner you've assigned yourself to while making it even more difficult for an honest and thoughtful exchange of ideas to ever actually occur between different sides. Apparently people would rather watch others- supposedly well-educated and intelligent others- shout and snort and whine and grunt and smarm and smug and act like kids on the playground than watch a respectful debate. If this is what you want, fine, whatever floats your proverbial boats, but cowboy up and admit to yourself and the world that you want to watch people make faux-clever cutting comments at each other as though they were fourth graders debating which TV show is best, rather than trying to claim you're watching something that means anything. I'm not sure why people don't just admit what they really want, cut out the middleman, and go watch the Ultimate Fighting Championships instead, but people are great about fooling themselves.