Opinion | How the Trump Administration Hacked Our Ignorance

I really think one of the actual secrets of the Trump administration is that they have very cynically hacked civic ignorance. They realize how little attention most Americans pay to political news. If they can get out there with a top-line message very aggressively right away, they can set the terms of the debate, regardless of the underlying truth of the matter. They say things all of the time that are just designed to get them through the next news hour or the next news day, with extreme confidence that all of this just fades away. You really begin to see how much the American system has depended on the honor system. It has depended, to some degree, on politicians agreeing to act with at least some degree of truth and honor, because the public will not be aware enough of the facts on the ground to be able to hold politicians to account when they are systematically dishonest.