Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy — When Feedback Fails

Crisis in Perception · Sep 17, 2026 · 48m

What happens when democratic institutions remain visible but the feedback connecting citizens to governing power begins to fail?

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world.

Using Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy by William Greider as our lens, this episode examines the politics of governing rather than simply the politics of elections.

Published in 1992, Greider argues that political parties, the press, representative institutions, and other traditional mediators had become less effective at connecting ordinary citizens to…