Our corrupted institutions fear that the American people are taking back their birthright\u2014that is, taking back the concept of self-government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A relatively new, but growing media genre highlights that dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past few years, there have been a growing number of national media stories\u2014really, more like partisan expos\u00e9s, rather than \u201cX, Y, Z happened\u201d\u2014about local politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The legacy media now follow an oft-replicated formula in this new genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first step is to unearth a local political body that conservatives have taken control of through an election or series of elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, define the newly elected officials as unhinged, right-wing wackos who represent a kind of proto-fascism in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, find a few squishy, Chamber of Commerce-type Republicans to quote, saying something like, \u201cEverything here was great and reasonable until these mean, unreasonable people showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, after describing the purported upstarts in the darkest and most threatening way possible, bury what they actually intend to do somewhere near the end of the article. It\u2019s usually something like switching to paper ballots in elections, shaping the curriculums of local schools, or getting sexually explicit content out of classrooms<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know, stuff that was totally normal until the media said it wasn\u2019t, a half-second ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent example of this phenomenon would be an\u00a0Associated Press\u00a0<\/a>article on Sunday about how conservatives are winning local county board and commission elections in Tennessee. The AP\u2019s Twitter account referred to the conservatives as \u201cfar right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n