Ronald Reagan was a mediocre actor (Bedtime For Bonzo) in the 50s before becoming President.
And he was a hugely popular radio announcer and sportscaster in Iowa at the huge Palmer station, WHO. If you read his biographies, you see that he simply found a much more lucrative career in Hollywood, even if he was not ever going to be an "A" list actor.
Of course, we have to take into account that he joined "the studio system" where actors signed with one studio and the studio decided who worked on which films.
In the meantime, he became active with the union and was a very effective and respected leader of that worker's group; that is what got him noticed and on his way to being governor. He did what people from both parties would call a solid "B" grade job in that position.... one where getting that much broad acceptance in California is nearly impossible.
You are, as we have come to expect, "damning by faint praise". Anyone with any knowledge of the person and the era would consider Ronald Reagan to be much more than a "mediocre actor" with a reference to Bonzo.
George Carlin had many valid observations on American politics that are still relevant. Americans are generally lazy and apathetic, so it's no wonder that the situation is grim.
Unless there is a major issue, such as a war, a pandemic or a depression, most people in most of the world don't vote and don't become involved in political issue unless they are personally affected. In the most recent Argentine elections, where INFOBAE reports there was a 220% inflation rate 26% of registered electors did not vote despite a penalty for not voting!
The loss of newspapers and other reliable journalism sources is an ominous sign. You have millions of people who can't distinguish entertainment from reality...
Just because the news is not delivered on a piece of dead tree does not mean that there has been a deterioration in the news sector. In fact, the ability of the Internet and related systems like messaging, we can get more information faster and with greater detail than ever before.
I remember sitting during the evenings in my home office in Puerto Rico when the Gulf War broke out 32 years ago. I had just gotten cable in my neighborhood and I watched Wolf Blitzer and the CNN crew holding cameras above their heads in a hotel window as the bombs feel all around them.
We have new methods of gathering the news. And, just as over 125 years ago we had "yellow journalism" with created events like the explosion of the Maine and the "taking" of San Juan Hill were vastly exaggerated and glorified in 1989, we have lots of news site online that flavor the news. It's nothing new.
