As Australian readers increasingly turn their focus towards international news, we are at risk of losing sight of issues closer to home.
Here’s a little quiz for you: can you name 10 US politicians? What about the members of your state parliament? Which question is easier?
In 2020 we found out that state governments are more powerful than ever. At the same time we devoted ever more attention to US politics. Giving our precious democratic attention to elections in which we may not vote and lawmakers who make laws which don’t apply to us leaves us disenfranchised — and erodes the quality of our democracy.
Part of the reason for our fascination with the US is the slow motion car-crash appeal of watching Donald Trump destroy the world’s pre-eminent democracy. But his dramatic ascendancy and spectacular fall from grace (long may he tumble) are ever more available to us because of a pre-existing issue with the economics of the media.
