Americans’ faith in democracy is abysmal, with only 34% of Americans satisfied with the state of our democracy, according to a January 2025 Gallup poll. This sentiment does not come as a surprise; multiple disasters have already graced headlines this year, with wildfires ravaging Los Angeles in January, United States President Donald Trump pardoning his darling January 6 rioters, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams kowtowing to Trump for political protection. The aforementioned issues result from many factors, including dry weather conditions and the constitutional power of presidents.
Media outlets spoon-feed U.S. citizens a heavy dose of cynicism every time they check the news. The media paints corrupt politicians and oligarchs as the source of the United States’ problems, with each crisis proving their incompetence. While it is fun to play the blame game, disgruntled Americans are playing it wrong: Institutions, not individuals, should bear the brunt of responsibility for political problems. Adopting this mindset is key to creating legitimate solutions to the dysfunctional U.S. political system.
This blame game often arises in casual political conversations. A few months ago, I noticed my Uber driver proudly displaying a “Make America Great Again” hat atop his dashboard. I could not resist asking the driver why he supported Trump for president.
“The economy,” the driver replied, going on to explain that he was hit hard by surging prices for which he blamed former President Joe Biden. Most Americans also attribute inflation to Biden — a largely misguided accusation.
“People generally over attribute control over the macroeconomy to presidents,” Tyler Schipper, associate professor of economics at the University of St. Thomas, said to Marketplace. Non-political supply chain shocks were the primary cause of post-pandemic inflation. Yet, because it is easier to blame top leaders than complex economic systems, all national problems are automatically Biden’s fault. Or Trump’s fault. Whoever holds power is blamed for crises that may be out of their control.
Political discourse is entrenched with this cynical attitude, which operates through the blame game — in times of crisis, the public reflexively searches for a scapegoat to point out and criticize. This game is partly due to how the media shapes Americans’ perceptions of political realities. To relay the news requires assembling bits of information into a meaningful narrative that generates views. I am using the same strategy right now as I fight to keep your attention. Outlets are stuck between wanting to share accurate information and needing a story so enticing, angering, worrying and exciting that readers must peel their eyes away from texts, toddlers, work and even cat videos to read them. However, elements that capture attention, like spicy scapegoats, tell only fragments of the whole story. We give individual persons and events credit for political change, whether those changes are positive or negative, trying to construct a story with a clear moral at the end. However, as the ever-perceptive author John Green points out, “much of what actually changes in human life isn’t driven by events, but instead by processes, which often aren’t considered news” because they make for lukewarm stories.
The greatest danger in individualist storytelling lies in the villains it creates. After Luigi Mangione killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024, an eyebrow-raising outpour of admiration for Mangione’s actions cropped up online. Despite Mangione's invalid approach, this response exhibited Americans’ entirely valid bitterness for the health insurance industry. Although Thompson is far from guiltless, justifying Mangione’s vigilantism gives Thompson far too much credit and the industry far too little. Health insurance tycoons are eye-catching cogs in a broken machine, but repairing the machine requires understanding its labyrinths of hidden gears — a feat just as complex as navigating claim denials and cryptic bureaucracies as a client. A plethora of factors caused the healthcare crisis, including inadequate federal regulation of insurance companies, a healthcare worker shortage and intricate political back-and-forths dating back to the 1930s — in other words, boring realities that make for a dull story. These larger forces at play remain hidden because of Americans’ focus on individual blame, culminating in the kind of political violence that killed Thompson.
If the news does not tell stories that accurately represent reality, then understanding political issues becomes even more daunting. Adjusting how we consume information, though, is a step in the right direction. Live news and news articles, in their appeal to our primitive, subconscious attention, are both friends and rivals. Even though media like those provide the latest sound bites about individual events, they often fail to separate the forest from the trees. Longform media, having more time for complexity and historical context, is better suited for this task. If reading books is not your cup of tea, then playing a podcast or audiobook while eating lunch, working out or doing chores is a practical way of consuming longform media.
It also goes a long way to simply be aware of placing more responsibility on systems than on individuals. Awareness enables reflection, which in turn enables change. The current political landscape is rife with disagreement, but most of us would agree that a little less finger-pointing and a little more nuance would do everyone good.
Contact Selena Teng at selena.teng@emory.edu
Selena Teng (she/her) (28C) is majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Law. She is from Millburn, New Jersey and enjoys crochet, amateur Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and New York Times games.
