I recently read a facet of vitriolic speech that hadn't occurred to me before. Oh, of course, I knew that presidents have speechwriters but...

Russell Baker, in an H.L. Mencken book review, wrote:

"In today's jargon, Mencken, eloquently proclaiming views certain to offends so many, would be called a 'polarizing' figure. Whereas, today's polarizers, however, are professional well-poisoners who spend vast sums for opinion polls to determine how best to inflame the masses for poliical advantage. Mencken did the trick by simply writing what was on his mind."

These inflamers and inciters may not even be telling us what they themselves think and believe, they may simply be pushing calculated buttons by spouting rhetoric that they know will arouse the passions of angry, fearful people.