Who is 'we'?

In this fundraising email, the Democratic Party claims that “we have achieved so much in the past year. Together, we built an economy that created millions of jobs and we vaccinated hundreds of millions of people.” But who is the “we” that accomplished all that? Did the Democratic Party vaccinate anyone? No. Did Democrats build an economy that “created millions of jobs”? No. Americans did that, many of whom are Democrats, many of whom are Republicans and Independents. And were those jobs “created” or were they “recovered” after the devastating job losses of the covid pandemic’s early months?

Political emails are sent out to millions of Americans each year, vilifying one political party, lauding the dubious accomplishments of the other party, and contributing to the polarization of the American electorate. We have come to accept the vast distortions of reality that characterize Democrats’ and Republicans’ advertising and fundraising efforts. Where are the fact-checkers? Where are the citizens’ organizations promoting clean politics? Who pushes back against the distortions and lies disseminated daily by political operatives of both parties?