Politics & Power Quote by John Avlon

Politics as “talk radio” isn’t just a metaphor; it’s an accusation about an entire business model masquerading as civic life. John Avlon is pointing to a recruitment strategy, not an ideology: conflict as content, tension as pacing, fear as glue, resentment as the audience-retention metric. The line works because it frames modern politics less like persuasion and more like programming. If the goal is “new recruits,” then citizens aren’t being convinced; they’re being enlisted. That one word quietly shifts the scene from democratic deliberation to tribal mobilization.

The subtext is that this style doesn’t simply reflect polarization, it monetizes and amplifies it. Talk radio perfected an attention economy before social media: pick villains, stoke grievance, keep listeners emotionally aroused long enough to come back tomorrow. Avlon suggests politics adopted that template because it’s efficient. Fear narrows the mind to threat detection; resentment supplies a ready-made narrative of stolen status; conflict offers daily episodes with heroes and enemies. You don’t have to win arguments when you can win loyalty.

Context matters here: Avlon has long positioned himself as a critic of hyper-partisanship and media ecosystems that reward outrage. Read against the last decade of Trump-era politics, algorithmic feeds, and fragmented news audiences, the quote lands as a warning about incentives. When politics borrows the “rules” of entertainment and grievance media, governance becomes secondary. The point isn’t that disagreement is new; it’s that the incentive structure now prizes escalation over resolution, because escalation recruits faster.