(Convinced into) Not voting for Trump hasn't as much to do with a well functioning of democracy. >There's been an intense cultural shift towards not making inf

(Convinced into) Not voting for Trump hasn't as much to do with a well functioning of democracy. >There's been an intense cultural shift towards not making informed decisions in the voting booth; [...] These latter points ring with me, and I think bolster the argument that higher quality local news will aid our democracy. Currently, if you scope out the national press, you get a national point of view. Without reporters writing about the affect that the national story will have on the local economy (aka "Me", "Our Community", "Our schools") voters can only be informed on one level. When the air qualify affects your neighbors due to reduced EPA mandates, or school taxes go up because federal dollars evaporate, or kids are learning to check boxes in standardized tests, or the local banks get bought and sold to multinationals, and everyone mortgage is underwater along with the back yard, I think I might see a lot more value the work of a local reporter making local connections to these national ideas. A robot can post about the reycling on patch, but can that robot also mention that a federal mandate makes the import tariff on transistors a little higher, and that Genui-Sys Integrations is gonna be underwater on its ECU contract, so possibly Billy's dad will face the pink slip? Real Example: I didn't know that GM was contracting some electronics manufacturing to a pick and place shop floor in my county until I saw the shutters and asked around: "Hey what did that company even make? Bad market or what?" They made car parts.