I’ve written about this three or four times, but a Michelle Malkin article I recently discovered confirmed my thoughts.

But first, let me step back a bit.

For the past few years the basic battle cry from the Dems via the DEM is: “there has never been this much hate, dissension and discontent between the aisles.” And then, naturally, the finger gets pointed at the GOP for their alleged stirring of the pot. It’s the GOP’s fault; they are the obstructionists. More specifically: it’s George Bush. He’s uncooperative. What’s happened to the Republicans under Bush? They’ve never been this disagreeable before! It’s not us; we haven’t changed!

To a degree, I would concur. But it’s larger than just GWB: the Republicans (and more importantly, their supporters) have changed.

So what happened to “create” this so-called hate and discontent? What has changed?

In a word: information. And the dissemination of and access to information.

Because it’s all about the power and, for the first time in recent political memory, the Democrats don’t have an absolute stranglehold on the control of information and, consequently, their power has diminished. Because, after all, information is power and where politics are concerned, it’s always about power and money.

When did this begin? What dynamic changed the situation?

In my opinion, it wasn’t a dynamic, it was a person. One little bitty radio person who started a talk show on KFBK in my home town, Sacramento, Fornicalia. Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh gave voice to an entire generation, an entire strata of persons who thought they had no voice, who had no idea there were so many others just like themselves. Conservatives began to realize: I’m not alone. Perhaps I’m simplifying things but I think not; Rush started an actual revolution of conservative self-realization — a very important concept and a base upon which was built a subsequent generation of conservative talk show hosts attempting to capitalize on Rush’s success, his cash and, more importantly, fundamentally conservative leanings.

Now don’t go thinking this is a post all about Rush; it’s not. It’s simply a starting point for a trend that has mutated into an entirely new paradigm of how we, as Americans, access and process our news and information. And how we have become much more politically aware of what goes on about us.

Perhaps this would be a good place to hand my blog, temporarily, over to Michelle Malkin:

The 2004 election gave syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin an up-close view of unhinged liberals. In fact, she received so much hate mail and witnessed so many loony acts by the left that she wrote a scathing book, “Unhinged,” about the tirades. She shared her reasons for writing the book with Human Events’ Robert Bluey.

BLUEY: Why are liberals so unhinged?

MICHELLE MALKIN: I think a lot of the left has been off the rail since the monopoly on the control of information was broken by conservative media. There was a time when they had a complete grip on how news and information was disseminated. And thanks to conservative talk radio, the rise of the Internet and blogs, and, of course, Fox News, that monopoly has been completely shattered.

Because they don’t control how news is framed, I think what we see on a daily basis–when conservative media call them on their lies and propaganda–are their fits. They can’t get away with it any more. Just like my 5-year-old and my 2-year-old, when they don’t get what they want, we see the results of that-a lot of whining and foot stomping. That’s the most benign example.

As I show in the book, they’ve really crossed the line. Certainly, the presidential losses in 2000 and 2004 exacerbated their condition. I think also the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it difficult for them to cope with the fact that we live in a time of war, and the kind of non-leadership the Democratic Party had been offering before September 11 is unacceptable now.

First there was talk radio. Then there were more political magazines. Then television. Then the internet and political websites and information sources like WorldNetDaily and NewsMax. Then, of course, blogs. In the meantime, the alphabet TV DEMs continue to hemorrhage viewers, newspapers bleed readers, circulation drops, and the ratings for Fox skyrocket.

What to the uninitiated (or those with an underlying agenda) looks like rancor on the right is simply the right being better organized, distributing information and allowing more and more people to stand up and give voice to their concerns and issues. The left’s reaction is essentially continued shock at the backlash and the ongoing loss of power and prestige, for which they were unprepared and had not foreseen.

Even now it rankles horribly: Bush is in his second term, he hasn’t been impeached, the GOP holds the majority in Washington, we’ve drawn worldwide lines in the sand, John Roberts will be seated as SCOTUS Chief Justice and Karl Rove walked into his office today minus handcuffs.

I see the Dems just pulled Rule 21. More to follow. . .