I think with politics the problem is that the best and brightest aren’t necessarily interested in serving the public that way. And why would anyone want to be a politician when you get compromised by money, get micromanaged by handlers on your image and the polls, and get criticized by one side or the other your entire career? It’s disheartening. I worry that people like AOC will get burned out and give up-- Bernie survived for most of his career pre-2016 by being kind of invisible on the national stage, and buoyed by the unique electorate of Vermont.
The problem with the media is similar to how Hollywood is addicted to “the blockbuster movie”-- they are constantly in need of some new hyped-up mega-story, when the evening news used to be a pretty sterile affair most of the time. Cable news has become a 24/7 outrage fest, Trump’s tweets fit the agenda perfectly. Fox News learned a long time ago that on a slow news day you can manufacture outrage (Rush Limbaugh had been doing it for years) and keep the audience tuned in. It’s not about news, it’s about ad revenue and agenda.
