Bursting the Bubble
How the astroturf machine mistook rented applause and paid hashtags for real people
POLITICS: By Walter Curt
Eight thousand dollars a month buys a lot of pretend. It buys a ring light, a script, a focus-grouped slogan, and just enough moral vanity to film it with a straight face. It buys “authenticity” the way a plastic plant buys “gardening.” That’s the point: everything about the modern Democratic machine is astroturf—manufactured buz…
