Thank you for articulating these criticisms. IMO people like the author are pining for high modernism when we've been in a postmodern media (and cultural) landscape for at least a couple decades now. It's the same impulse that has extremely online right wingers pining for "trad" values while posting waifus. They seem to wish we could live in the Eisenhower administration forever. Unfortunately for these people, that's just not possible.
Edit: also want to add this quote:
>...disillusioned voters might adopt more realistic expectations about how much leaders can improve their lives.
This article positions itself against "nihilism" but this is the most nihilistic thing I've seen in a piece of political writing. This is no more than a way to say that elites should tell voters: "Peons, stop expecting your lives to get better. That's not our relationship. This is not a democracy, and your role in society is to suffer silently while also praising us."
Edit: also want to add this quote:
>...disillusioned voters might adopt more realistic expectations about how much leaders can improve their lives.
This article positions itself against "nihilism" but this is the most nihilistic thing I've seen in a piece of political writing. This is no more than a way to say that elites should tell voters: "Peons, stop expecting your lives to get better. That's not our relationship. This is not a democracy, and your role in society is to suffer silently while also praising us."