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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Voters Shouldn’t Trust Their Own Political Party: Ezra Klein
Perhaps my biggest frustration with the U.S. news media (and yes, I am a card-carrying member) is that we permit the two parties to decide what is left and what is right. The way it works, roughly, is that anything Democrats support becomes left, and everything Republicans support becomes right.
There are good reasons for this. It isnt the medias job to police political ideologies, and it wouldnt be a good idea for us to try. But that leaves ordinary voters in a bit of a tough spot.
The reality is that most Americans arent policy wonks. They dont sit down with think-tank papers or economic studies and puzzle over whether its better to address the free-rider problem in health care through automatic enrollment or the individual mandate. Instead, they outsource those questions to the political actors they trust.
Unfortunately, those political actors arent worthy of their trust. Theyre trying to win elections, not points for intellectual consistency. So the voters who trust them get taken for a ride.
Consider the partywide flips and flops of just the past few years:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-23/why-voters-shouldn-t-trust-their-own-political-party-ezra-klein.html
BumRushDaShow
(126,616 posts)Yet in reality, this is precisely what they do 24/7/365. They insist on "interpreting", "defining", "parsing", and finally sound-biting policy and current events in a biased way. Freak perspectives that no self-respecting journalist would ever have see the light of day, becomes the "norm". They are also good at exaggeration and creating tabloid controversies using unimportant fringe issues in order to get ratings - essentially throwing the gasoline on a fire in order to encourage people to tune them in to watch the disaster of their own making.