NEW<\/span>You can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Former Sen. Ben Sasse said in an interview Thursday that America’s political and media ecosystem<\/a> has become a distraction from deeper cultural decay.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re not going to talk about politics at all,” Sasse told Ross Douthat of The New York Times during the “Interesting Times” podcast<\/a> as he undergoes treatment for stage 4 pancreatic cancer. “What we\u2019re going to talk about is the fact that we were living through a technological revolution\u2026 and we were living through institutional collapse.”<\/p>\n Sasse, who left the Senate in 2023 after eight years, described his diagnosis as a “death sentence”<\/a> but used the conversation to frame a broader critique of American public life, arguing that politics and media have shrunk into reactive, tribal spaces.<\/p>\n He said the rise of digital technology has reshaped how Americans think, interact and form community, pulling attention away from real-world relationships and toward fragmented online engagement. According to Sasse, this shift has hollowed out institutions while amplifying extreme voices.<\/p>\n BERNIE SANDERS SAYS TRUMP’S NOT STUPID TO REALIZE ‘SYSTEM IS BROKEN,’ EVEN AS HE MAKES IT WORSE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n New-onset diabetes or worsening blood sugar control can be an early indicator in some patients.<\/span> (Getty Images\/iStock)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “The weirdos are crowding everybody else out,” Sasse said. “All of our outlets have an incentive to go narrow and deep, there isn\u2019t any 60 percent audience that\u2019s ever going to exist again.”<\/p>\n He argued that both political parties and media ecosystems increasingly rely on amplifying fringe behavior from the opposing side, rather than solving substantive problems.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s a ton of incentive to find some nut job on the left or some nut job on the right,” Sasse said. “The problem with that kind of nut picking is it doesn\u2019t ever solve a problem.”<\/p>\n WILLIAM BENNETT, ROB NOEL:\u00a0AMERICA’S MORAL DECLINE DEMANDS ACTION. WHAT CONSERVATIVES MUST DO NOW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n An early morning visitor to the National Mall is silhouetted against the orange sky of daybreak behind the U.S. Capitol Dome on April 1, 2026, in Washington, D.C.<\/span> (J. David Ake\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He reflected on his own time in the Senate, acknowledging that his approach, focusing on civic norms and institutional reform, often clashed with the incentives of modern politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I wasn\u2019t a very good politician,” he said. “I am way too idealistic about what I believe in America to be a very good dealmaker.”<\/p>\n Sasse reiterated that view, arguing that political institutions have failed to keep pace with broader societal changes driven by technology and cultural fragmentation.<\/p>\n “Politics barely matters for what we\u2019re going through right now,” he said. “This institution is filled with blowhards.”<\/p>\n BEN SASSE OPENS UP ABOUT FAITH, TERMINAL CANCER DIAGNOSIS IN EMOTIONAL INTERVIEW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n He warned that the digital age has replaced shared national experiences with individualized content streams, weakening social cohesion and making constructive dialogue more difficult.<\/p>\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1200\/675\/cancer-pancreatic.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
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