This from Meacham’s Soul of America quoting Richard Hofstadter:
“…. growth of the mass media of communication and their use in politics have brought politics closer to the people than ever before and have made politics a form of entertainment in which the spectators feel themselves involved. Thus it has become, more than ever before, an arena into which private emotions and personal problems can be readily projected.”
Written in the 50s, this captures today’s social media and propagandistic “news” channels. Trumpers for one certainly cast their personal resentments and envies in a political light where politicians avidly pick up on them and use them to their advantage. – p. 194
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