"There is no word to adequately describe the anger, frustration, & disbelief that Americans are feeling.."

[Jedi Guy]

41. Maybe, I guess.

I feel like the American electorates of 1974 and 2016 are very different animals, though. Some things are still going to be the same, like the kitchen table issues, but it was a different world and a different time. Sadly a shitbag like Trump can find fertile ground much more easily than we like to think.

The media back then was a totally different landscape. Everyone was, for the most part, presented with more or less the same facts and might interpret them differently but there was still a shared reality. These days the media ecosystem is a chaotic mess of echo chambers and outright bullshit, you're certainly correct about that.

1974 was before my time but I feel like back in the Before Times the left and the right both genuinely wanted the best for America and disagreed on how to get to the desired endpoint.

Now the left and the right are working from totally different blueprints and the desired endpoints are wildly different and don't bear any resemblance to each other.