Federalist Paper No. 10 - Factions

When James Madison wrote The Federalist No. 10 he was very concerned that without a proper Constitution to establish a rule of law in our country, we would succumb to the wills and wishes of "a number of citizens...who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion...adverse to the rights of other citizens...and [the] interests of the community." He worried that these factions would cause discourse, and in the worst cases violence, and felt that the best way to subvert them in the long run would be to have a large and expansive political process under our new Constitution. Unfortunately, there was no way he could anticipate this solution leading to even larger issues of "factionalization" in our world today. One need not look farther than our various 24hr news stations propagating their various viewpoints to get a real-life example of the dangers Madison didn't consider. While he may have thought that a larger body led to more, but smaller, factions that would cancel themselves out, America is currently inundated with "...persons...[who] have been interesting to the human passions," such as Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, et al. who, "have in turn divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other, than to co-operate for their common good." We now have an informed public, in the loosest sense of the phrase, separated into "Fox v. MSNBC" for example and attacking each other and their local politicians with everything short of violence, while getting further and further away from the goals they wish to achieve, like health care reform. With the ability to be spoon-fed what you should believe 24 hours a day, without considering the varied viewpoints of other people, even the largest political body is bound to fall prey to factitious behavior, and I am beginning to worry that not even suggestions as insightful as Madison's can do much to avoid it.