Tom, I wouldn't blame TV. I think the advent of TV probably has a malign affect but is overstated in severity.

I'd argue that the abdication of the conservatives of any principle worthy of the name has more to do with it. The Democrats and the Republicans no longer disagree about whether or not they should abridge your property rights so they can give your money to people who didn't earn it, or bomb people who likewise are pretty much innocent. They only now disagree over the proper reasons for doing these things, and they each accuse the other of having improper reasons, but they basically both approve of the methods of big government interfering more and more in everyones lives in pursuit of social engineering fantasies that Americans once repudiated as belonging to the fallacious philosphy of the "divine right of kings."

This loss of distinction between them is the reason why it no longer matters which one you belong to.

The cause of this loss is their recognition that Americans (as in all of the west, not being specifically anti-American here) are simply too comfortable and apathetic to resist their (de)predations.

The revolution was forged in the fires of dire necessity and barbaric cruelty. It cannot be reborn in sybaritic hedonism.