Politics cannot be divorced from culture. Many people are wedded to the misperception that, in a democratic society, we elect leaders who are somehow better than the ordinary voter. In fact, democratic societies tend to elect leaders who are, in most ways, a reflection of the voters themselves. Since political leadership in a republic is only as strong as its weakest voter, its elected leaders are very often not among the country's best-and-brightest.
In this way, elected officials and the common culture form a feedback loop, each reinforcing the other. Since the early 2000s, “reality” television has been the preferred form of entertainment on television for most Americans. Since that time, social media has become ubiquitous as a form of mass communication. This is to say nothing of the fact that, while most Americans cannot name their senator or, in some cases, the president, most Americans do know their celebrities.
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