“... these tiny television listings [from 1950] ... were the seed out of which our national culture of irony and anger was to grow.”

-- George W.S. Trow, ”My Pilgrim's Progress: Media Studies 1950-1998,“ pg. 73

That's it, isn't it? Anger and Irony. Anger tends to be exhibited by the doofus right (Tea Party and FOX News) while irony tends to be exhibited by the vaguely educated left (”The Daily Show“ and ”The Colbert Report"). Both sides, all members of the diminishing middle and working class, contribute to the problem. The left laughs, the right fulminates. But the real battle is elsewhere.