Is feeding at the trough of government graft the goal of politics, or is it the optimal administration of the state?
The answer depends on whom you ask.
For the actual citizens — the flyover rabble — the objective is obviously the latter, as it’s their lives and fortunes that are on the line.
For the consultant class, the media, the politicians, the donors, and the think tanks, though it’s mostly about self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment.
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Hence the legacy media’s obsession with elections over policy substance — infotainment rather than information.
If for no other reason than masochism, you were to flip on CNN at this very moment, what is the odds ratio of hearing about fentanyl zombies marauding the LA streets or young adults drowning in credit card debt versus who’s ahead in the horserace for the midterms over a year away?
Some news actress in a designer power-pantsuit sets up the segment like an ESPN sideline reporter hyping a big game before passing it to her esteemed colleague, a man in full make-up, to dazzle the audience with glitzy graphics and vital polling statistics.
This all, mind you, a full year and three months away from any national election.
On display above is total consultant brain, total corporate media hack brain.
This craven, banal brand of commentary is only really compelling to people who don’t actually care about governing well or delivering on issues but rather only live to win elections for their team like they’re sporting events — the most bottom-dwelling, lowest-common-denominator iteration of politics.
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Why should anyone give fuck who’s (nominally) running the show if they don’t do anything for anyone outside of the permanent managerial class?
The filthy reality is that, in the current paradigm, by design, there are only two viable options, which happen to be two sides of the same coin.
So you don’t really have any choices on how you are governed, anyway.
You have, as the illustrious George Carlin once noted, the illusion of choice.
No matter what goes down, Goldman Sachs wins and you lose.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, etc.
Bread and circuses.
You know the thing.
