American political conflict today is no more vicious than in past eras—the 1790s, the 1850s sectional crisis (e.g., the caning of Charles Sumner), the 1920s Red Scare, and McCarthyism—so complaints about today's 'tone' overstate a historically mild period; what is genuinely different is the proliferation of media outlets that outpaces the supply of talent, giving weak minds strong larynxes.