Look at the declining television coverage. Look at the declining voting rate. Economics and economic news is what moves the country now, not politics.

Teeter argues that public attention and national momentum are increasingly driven by economic conditions and the flow of economic information rather than by traditional political theater. By pointing to falling TV political coverage and declining voter participation, he suggests a weakening of politics as a mass civic spectacle and a corresponding rise of market-oriented concerns as the main force shaping attitudes and behavior. The quote reflects a late-20th-century pollster’s perspective: elections and governance are constrained by consumer confidence, employment, inflation, and headline economic indicators, which can override partisan messaging. It also implies a media shift—economic news as the dominant narrative frame through which citizens interpret national success or failure.