One of the problems with horse race journalism is not just that it's content-free. It's also that by continually focusing on power and the perceptions of power, the muddling of fact into opinion creates an environment wherein both sides of the mythical "center" of the parties are seen as equally extreme.

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It matters that conservatives have been proven wrong about the relationship between deficits and inflation. It matters that conservatives have been proven wrong about climate change. It matters that countries with single-payer healthcare have better care at lower cost. It matters that treating minorities as human beings with equal rights does not cause society to fall apart. It matters that supply side economic theory has been proven to be a disaster. It matters that record corporate profits and low effective tax rates are accompanying high unemployment, killing all conservative claims about economic realities in any fair debate. It matters that blue states tend to be socially and economically happier than red ones. It matters that income inequality is damaging to a country's economic future, and that retirement programs for the elderly can easily be paid for by taking what amounts to pocket change in taxes from the wealthiest Americans.

These things matter. Facts are important. Without a grounding in fact, all politics looks like a battle of the center against the extremes of both sides. But that's an incredibly lazy and ignorant way to look at the world.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-fact-free-laziness-of-centrism-by.html