Third Way: How Far We've Come, How Far We Have To Go
MANDEL NGAN
President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office have only just begun, yet already the administration has opened the floodgates on a score of executive policy. Most of the president's executive orders have focused on unwinding former-President Donald Trump's policies. Meanwhile, the Senate is gradually working through Biden's nominations, while simultaneously deciding on the upper chamber's balance of power and preparing for the impeachment trial of Trump. In the public sphere, the far-right is beginning to crumble, although the threat of right-wing domestic terror still lingers.
% of US adults who said each is a very big problem in the country today
It will be a challenging four years for Biden. The Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate may last only two years. Biden's New Deal styled presidency could easily be encumbered during his last two years in office by GOP resistance, should they flip the chamber in 2022. The President must either make a mad dash to enact policy now or keep a steady hand and hope that bipartisan support for his policies holds. Alongside this, Biden will find himself reckoning with problems that have been razing the United States for years. Racial equity, the opioid epidemic, and climate top that list. Already, however, Biden has kept his campaign promises and is working towards his goals of restoring the United States' prestige. The enthusiasm for clean solutions from Biden's Secretary of Transport Pete Buttigieg and other cabinet members shows a determination to make climate a central part of all the administration’s activities. Biden's diverse cabinet shows he's serious about taking steps towards racial equity in the United States. How he handles the opioid crisis will unfold as his presidency continues, but as of now, his plan seems likely to redefine how the United States handles drug addiction. His two rounds of big COVID-19 stimulus seem on track as well, although they face setbacks in the Senate, as too much-undirected funding could overheat the economy. Yet with literal threats from hell and high water, any bettering of the American situation will be welcome. Biden seems up for the job.
To be successful in any task, Biden will need the support of the majority of the public. To get that, American news media will have to be cleansed of many of its faults. Trust in the news poses a problem of continual misinformation. A lack of information, in turn, limits people's ability to thrive and engage with their democracy. A partisan news media also ignores existential threats to the government, forgoing those threats for party gain, when in reality the systems that need to change are the parties and the news themselves. Doing this is not challenging in theory. In practice, the ability for the news to change will be put to the test.
The changing of the guard from Biden to Trump has not changed the need for a strong civil-society sector as well a re-evaluation of the goals of American political parties. Even as federal funding eases COVID-19 damage, communities will still find themselves without access to governmental resources or proper political education. This is a gap to be filled by civil-society and a place for political parties to begin helping communities rather than just focusing on electing officials. A strong and trustworthy news media is necessary for this to happen. The news needs to be able to direct United States adults to the political resources they need. Doing so would improve democratic participation while also ensuring citizens finds their needs taken care of.
One of the most persistent rat's nests that will have to be eradicated during the Biden era is misinformation. Even as Biden enters the presidency with relatively favourable polling, the United States' population is still reeling in antipathy towards one another from Trump's divisive style of ruling. It is here where the dilapidation of trust in the news has been expressed most keenly. If there is no trust in the news media, which has the duty of informing the public, then it is not difficult to see how rampant misinformation could spread. Much of the lost trust in the news can be blamed on the Trump presidency and how it reshaped the minds of United States conservatives. According to Pew Research Center, a pollster, a survey found that the media organizations Trump criticized most vocally found saw the greatest increase in distrust, driven largely by Republicans. By directing his base away from "mainstream" news, Trump encouraged the creation of media echo chambers, contributing to the ongoing phenomenon of news sites appealing to their readers’ predilections for profits. A partisan wedge in the news media, something that should remain overall non-partisan, has helped foster two sets of realities for Democrats and Republicans. The way to reform the news media here is not challenging. Through increased transparency, diversification of funds away from corporate sponsors, and a commitment to journalistic ethics to be above partisanship, the news media can regain its place as being a reality builder among United States adults. Even more concretely, the news media can work towards removing paywalls, improving the amount of quality news consumers receive.
On important issues facing the country, most Republican and Democratic voters... (%)
Dangers to American democracy extend beyond civil society. Since it was made to voice the will of the people, the House of Representatives was bound to be filled with right-wing delinquents during the 2020 election, fueled to success by the votes of QAnon believers and hate groups that took to the capitol on January 6th. Therefore the election of Madison Cawthorn in North Carolina, who's first communication as a Representative was "cry more, lib", and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is an outspoken supporter of QAnon, are not surprising. Indeed, it is all the more upsetting yet predictable that Representative Greene, who also called the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings "staged" to a victim of the former, has found her way on to the House Education Committee. In Federalist Paper 59, Alexander Hamilton wrote that the United States government needed to have a way to preserve its own existence in the face of state power. In the face of QAnon followers, who seek to destroy it, the government retains that right to protect itself. The expulsion of Representative Greene from Congress, then, would be a justifiable step towards increasing safety.
As could be guessed, a robust and truthful news media, which squashed QAnon conspiracy theories rather than supporting them could have prevented Greene's rise from happening. Unparalleled amounts of populist distrust make stopping misinformation challenging, so it is the prerogative of the new president to uphold the sanctity of the press as a provider of truth. Jen Psaki, Biden's press secretary, has already done a good job of keeping conspiracy theories out of focus, refusing to comment about Representative Greene, instead of pointing towards Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comments about the representative. Although the Biden administration and news media must root out conspiracy theories and lies, the aftershock of conspiracy theories will likely tremor in United States politics for years to come. Here, the media will play the biggest role in allowing conspiracies to fester and spread or holding fast to the truth.
There is also still a looming populism that threatens to undermine classical liberal values. Even though shared criticism of Robinhood came from both AOC and Ted Cruz, populism tends to fight itself. Naturally, the two sides of the populist coin were never going to mesh together well. Here is where a news-informed public can counter illegitimate tendencies of populism. With increased political literacy about bureaucratic functioning and government know-how, more radical stances could give way to a more centrist stance, as Secretary Buttigieg experienced. A growing appreciation for less entertaining yet more successful, moderate policies could help keep the centre-left at the helm while also accomplishing incremental yet valuable change in the United States. Biden will be the one who tests if this can be accomplished in the next four years, but he will need a news media dedicated to informing the public properly to succeed. Once again, the troubles in American democracy can be tied back to the dire missteps of the news media. The solutions lay in changing the news, too.
It cannot be overstated how vital a healthy news ecosystem is to a functioning democracy. Four years of continuous neglect and pestilential attacks have seen the United States media come under tremendous pressure, and technological advancement has only increased the load. Considering the news media underpins everything from what policy the public supports the basic facts on the ground, the most serious reform that needs to happen in the United States should begin with the media. There is much work to be done, yet shining examples of excellent news exist. The best news sources are the most transparent ones who acknowledge their own limitations while striving to inform the public as best as they are able and to ensure that all citizens can actively be a part of their democracy. All journalists should strive to meet those standards. The Third Way columnist can only hope they have done just that.
