Last month, the American billionaire Sheldon Adelson bought a small, right-wing religious newspaper in Israel, Makor Rishon, for 17 million shekels, about $5 million. Having done that, Mr. Adelson is now not merely an important player in Israel’s right-wing newspaper scene: He is the only major player. This might be good for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Adelson’s favorite politician. But it is bad news for Israel’s public sphere.
How Not to Seem Rich While Running for Office
A new generation of entitled politicians may not have struggled much. So they’re stealing from their elders.
.. Candidates have been spinning Horatio Alger stories since the days of Horatio himself, or probably even the days of Great-Great-Grandpa Alger, who for all we know worked his nails to the nub scrubbing the decks of the Mayflower. But politicians of the 20th century were far more likely to have actually struggled than today’s crop — they might have fought wars, grown up during the Depression or at least worked in a family store or on a farm. They were also less likely to have attended college or, if they did, were more likely to have helped pay for it themselves
.. Absent real hardships, modern politicians have simply gotten creative, or at least what passes for creative in the anesthetizing cosmos of cookie-cutter campaign hell. They especially love tales of dishwashing.
.. In the end, Ryan’s point was made and his narrative was driven home: This son of a prominent Wisconsin attorney knows how to wash dishes!
The Social Progress Index
Over all, the United States’ economy outperformed France’s between 1975 and 2006. But 99 percent of the French population actually enjoyed more gains in that period than 99 percent of the American population. Exclude the top 1 percent, and the average French citizen did better than the average American. This lack of shared prosperity and opportunity has stunted our social progress.
1896: McKinley raised 26 times William Jennings Bryan
In 1896, when corporations could give directly to political candidates, pro-corporate Republican presidential candidate William McKinley raised $16 million to populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan’s $600,000.
.. But the press has an obligation to follow power, to explain how our political system actually works, not to hew to a civics-class fantasy that less and less resembles reality.