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From Inflation to Authoritarianism, Democracy is the Answer
The news these days, cable and otherwise, and you’ll see a lot of cross-currents in the coverage that commentators aren’t bringing together in their totality to present to Americans the bigger picture, the whole story of how these component parts fit together.
Here’s a sense of what I mean.
Take first the issue of inflation. As I’ve written about a few times over the past weeks for PoliticusUSA, media coverage of surging inflation almost invariably frames rising prices as a problem for Democrats that threatens their ability to maintain control of the House, Senate, and even the White House. Even while a side comment here and there reveals the truth that there’s not much either political party can do in terms of economic policy to curb inflation, which a result of supply chain disruptions and labor shortages resulting from the pandemic, the narrative informing the coverage implicitly presents the Republican Party as offering an alternative to voters anxious over what seems like unabated inflation.
And meanwhile, we see democracy threatened around the globe and here at home, with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine unfolding while the 1/6 commission continues to unearth — and unravel — new information about the efforts of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators effectively to interrupt the peaceful…
