Great points, and I tend to agree with a lot of what you said, or at least, am willing to consider your points and do a bit more study. In particular, I strongly agree with your stance that journalism has failed us. Back to the ad hominem attacks in politics, though, and your historical tidbit on Jefferson v. Adams... Stuff like that did happen, I expressly mentioned that exceptions would be found. But we also have a wealth of material in speeches, letters, newspaper articles and the like from their time to show that this was not what the bulk of political discourse was like. I don't think anyone 200 years from now will be able to say the same about us.