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Former Senion. Ben Sasse said in an interview Thursday that America’s political and media ecosystem is a distraction from a deep cultural decline.
“We will never talk about politics,” Sasse told The New York Times’ Ross Douthat during the “Interesting Times” podcast as he underwent treatment for stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Sasse, who left the Senate in 2023 after eight years, described his diagnosis as a “death sentence” but used the interview to lay out a broader criticism of American public life, saying that politics and the media have entered active positions.
He said the rise of digital technology has changed the way Americans think, communicate and build society, drawing attention away from real-world relationships and toward diverse online interactions. According to the Sasse, this change shut the institutions out while raising voices.
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“Surprises abound for everyone,” Sasse said. “All our stores are motivated to go slow and deep, none of the 60 percent of the audience will ever be there again.”
He pointed out that political parties and media systems rely more on increasing anti-social behavior than on solving serious problems.
“There are a lot of incentives to get a nut job on the left or a nut job on the right,” Sasse said. “The problem with that kind of nut picking is that it doesn’t solve the problem.”
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An early morning visitor to the National Mall is silhouetted against the orange morning sky behind the US Capitol Dome on April 1, 2026, in Washington, DC. (J. David Ake/Getty Images)
He reflected on his time in the Senate, admitting that his approach, which focuses on social norms and institutional reform, is often at odds with today’s political motivations.
“I wasn’t a great politician,” he said. “I think a lot about what I believe in America that I’m the best salesman.”
Sasse reiterated that view, saying that political institutions have failed to keep pace with broader social changes driven by technology and cultural diversity.
“Politics has nothing to do with what we are facing right now,” he said. “This institution is full of blowhards.”
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He warned that the digital age has replaced national shared experiences and individual content streams, weakening social cohesion and making constructive dialogue even more difficult.
“We no longer have shared cultural data,” he said, comparing today’s media landscape to earlier eras when Americans used standard programs and could communicate easily.
Sasse expressed confidence that Americans may eventually adapt to the current state of information, learn to filter out misinformation and exaggeration.
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“If we survive, one thing I am almost sure of is that we will find out how to have conversations over all the noise,” he said.
“There will still be many ordinary people who will show up and roll their eyes,” he added.
