"Where's the outrage?" the plaintive cry of Bob Dole, Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency in 1996, was a lonely gem in a drab election. Outrage, Dole knew, is the infallible motor of change in democracy. So with his campaign floundering, he groped for something anything to rouse public ire against his opponent, President Bill Clinton. Dole failed because an American electorate with a connoisseur's nose for scandal couldn't be snookered into sharing his faux indignation.
A country's capacity for outrage tells you a lot. America has developed a culture of 24-hour fury, with every television...
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