Blind Passion and 3%

Tony grew up in the suburbs, attended college in Boston, graduate school in New York, was proud to be for Obama in 2008, for Bernie in 2016, and now he’s an all for impeachment Democrat. To Tony one thing matters: Trump must go.

Sam lives in the rural small town he grew up in, married at 19, worked in construction and then found himself, a decade later, sitting at his kitchen table every Friday night with his wife (a nurse at the local hospital) juggling bills.

The way Sam sees it illegal immigrants take jobs from working people like him, big corporations hire immigrants to hold down workers’ wages and, worse, the politicians in Congress give Wall Street whatever it wants. The only leader Sam sees fighting for people like him is Trump – so when Trump tweeted he’s more popular than Abraham Lincoln it didn’t faze Sam. Trump’s fighting for people like him and that’s what matters.

Any night, if you turn on MSNBC and watch Rachel Maddow, you’re looking into Tony’s world – or, if you turn on Fox and watch Sean Hannity, you’re seeing Sam’s world. If you go on Facebook or Twitter you see the same two camps. Visit the New York Times website and you’re traveling toward Tony’s world; visit Breitbart and you’re sailing toward Sam’s.

Watching Adam Schiff belittle Trump on MSNBC, Tony cheers; watching Hannity mocking Schiff, Sam cheers with equal passion. And there’re more than enough Sam’s and Tony’s to earn Hannity and Maddow a 3% Nielson rating (meaning 3% of the people watch their shows) which makes Hannity and Maddow huge stars.

It looks like all of America is in one of those two camps but, of course, that’s not exactly so: Sam and Tony are only reflections of two small factions; what you’re actually seeing are news websites, Social Media pages, Cable News networks and pundits and politicians exploiting Tony and Sam’s fears and blind passions.

 

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Carter Wrenn

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Blind Passion and 3%

Tony grew up in the suburbs, attended college in Boston, graduate school in New York, was proud to be for Obama in 2008, for Bernie in 2016, and now he’s an all for impeachment Democrat. To Tony one thing matters: Trump must go.

Sam lives in the rural small town he grew up in, married at 19, worked in construction and then found himself, a decade later, sitting at his kitchen table every Friday night with his wife (a nurse at the local hospital) juggling bills.

The way Sam sees it illegal immigrants take jobs from working people like him, big corporations hire immigrants to hold down workers’ wages and, worse, the politicians in Congress give Wall Street whatever it wants. The only leader Sam sees fighting for people like him is Trump – so when Trump tweeted he’s more popular than Abraham Lincoln it didn’t faze Sam. Trump’s fighting for people like him and that’s what matters.

Any night, if you turn on MSNBC and watch Rachel Maddow, you’re looking into Tony’s world – or, if you turn on Fox and watch Sean Hannity, you’re seeing Sam’s world. If you go on Facebook or Twitter you see the same two camps. Visit the New York Times website and you’re traveling toward Tony’s world; visit Breitbart and you’re sailing toward Sam’s.

Watching Adam Schiff belittle Trump on MSNBC, Tony cheers; watching Hannity mocking Schiff, Sam cheers with equal passion. And there’re more than enough Sam’s and Tony’s to earn Hannity and Maddow a 3% Nielson rating (meaning 3% of the people watch their shows) which makes Hannity and Maddow huge stars.

It looks like all of America is in one of those two camps but, of course, that’s not exactly so: Sam and Tony are only reflections of two small factions; what you’re actually seeing are news websites, Social Media pages, Cable News networks and pundits and politicians exploiting Tony and Sam’s fears and blind passions.

 

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Carter Wrenn

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