Laying Down a Marker

Just putting down a marker to return to later:  our society is becoming increasingly transparent in ways that are having a big effect on politics and perceived inequality.  Once upon a time, you could look around and say, "Republicans are like the people at the country club.  And people at the country club are rich."  Now you can see vastly worse Republicans and vastly richer people, on TV and on the internet.  And people are more aware of what their friends/peers are consuming, so that longstanding injustices are newly being thrust under people's noses.  These factors are exacerbated by self-selected or customized, or otherwise ideologically filtered, "news."  There is no hope for the Republic.