Right. But you wrote that syndicated talkers are to blame for the divisions in the country. My point is that they're a symptom, not the disease.
HHH is mistaken: Two hundred years ago, newspapers stirred up divisions between people of differing political beliefs. Today it's bloggers, talk show hosts, and political pundits. In this country's history, we've never "search(ed) for common ground and built from there"; we've had three major civil wars (the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the War Between the States) and a number of minor ones (Shays' Rebellion, the House Tax Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion, and a couple of union strikes that required federal intervention come to mind) in between our disagreements over which external foe we should tackle next.
Let's not romanticize the past. The song is the same, only the instruments have changed.