"I guess after the picture came out the insurgency picked up and Iraqis
attacked the Americans and the British and they attacked in return and
they were just killing each other. I felt bad about it … no, I felt
phised off. If the media hadn’t exposed the pictures to that extent,
then thousands of lives would have been saved." Lynndie England March 2008
This is the way conservatives think, if they get caught doing wrong, it’s the fault of either the media for yapping about it, liberals for pointing out that what they may have done is indeed wrong or that the Devil made them do it. It’s who they are, part of their upbringing, environment, genetic code and what little edumacation they may have had to suffer through.
Ronald Reagan was the first to realize that voting bloc could tip the political process by adding them to the Republican Party of upper class wealth and banking. So he reduced his political rhetoric to only what a sixth grader could understand, making dull knives feel good about themselves. In doing so he created what were then called "Reagen Democrats" who were more than enough for him to create a conservative hegemony that lasted a generation.
I am not sure what has caused the change we are now enjoying. Perhaps it is that the internet having become available to America’s small towns, trailer parks, hollers and gas station/beauty parlors have made the generation coming up smarter and more aware of just what the hell is going on.