There is soup of things there, but at the very bottom is really the fact that those in power always manipulate those are not to fight amongst themselves so they

There is soup of things there, but at the very bottom is really the fact that those in power always manipulate those are not to fight amongst themselves so they don't interfere with the dealings upstairs. For example people are told to the hate mythical welfare single mom queen, because she is going to drive up in her Lexus and steal all the benefits. Not to say that there aren't real issues, there are, but they are mixed in with racial rhetoric, hate for other groups, corporatist agenda and a heavy sprinkling of American Civil Religion and you get "Take your government out of my Medicare!" craziness. Sometimes I like to imagine ridiculous scenarios -- in this case I imagine that Tea party is supported and funded by ultra-liberals, because crazies like birthers and so on are really effective at demolishing the conservative agenda by making them look insane and unstable by association. To be fair, I also like to imagine that say some liberals are hidden ultra-conservatives and so they promote a steady stream of refugees to Western Europe. And there is no better way to turn people to nationalism and conservatism today that than. So in my imaginary scenario each side is actually a false flag operation for the other side.