Biden Is Boring
That is what all of the news outlets will be talking about, Democrat and Conservative alike, as they try to make every year an election cycle. We will hear for weeks about the polls that show how few Americans are excited by 2024, or how many are exhausted by a Biden Trump ballot. This is all true, but it is neither news nor unexpected.
Many outlets now make their money off of politics. Discussing it, breaking down issues, promoting a party or a specific agenda, even analyzing what the politicians wear to an event or hyping feuds for ratings. American politics has become a celebrity sport and it fuels billions in profits from spectators.
Just like sports, networks have created a preseason and a postseason in order to have more coverage.
Even before the campaigns begin, the networks treat all possibilities like a draft. Who will announce first? Who is weighing their options? Who might endorse who in the first round?
Polls are conducted almost daily to show how the dozen candidates are fairing. Who had a misstep, who overtook the lead. Like the Hunger Games, each candidate that drops out has their face plastered up on giant screens before being added to the eliminated lists.
Election night has all the technology, pomp and circumstance of the Oscars. The results discussed for days, weeks, or even months before they fade off only to be discussed as the next season begins anew.
That is why America is exhausted.
It used to be that every four years Americans would get heavily invested in Presidential candidates, their positions, their policies, and their gaffs. Then, after the election, we would accept the results, go back to our lives, and discuss the issues facing Americans from time to time, not the politicians.
It used to be that the former President would fade into the background, extra quiet for the first year or two to make sure to not steal focus or second guess the new leader. Then they’d go on to release a biography and build a library. Former Presidents supported the current one. They understood the pressure, the stakes, the challenges of the role.
Then twenty four hour news became a reality. Politicians learned that the more airtime was spent covering themselves, the better their fundraising. Obstructionist politics became the norm. Fighting, blaming, lying for headlines. Americans who were largely independent started choosing tribes. Political groups are now as deeply ingrained in our culture as sports teams
All of that led to a former reality TV star putting the political news machine to work. Trump knew making outrageous claims and statements gets attention. The political news learned that the more they covered Trump, the higher their ratings went.
2016 and all through Trump’s presidency was a major boon to CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. It didn’t depend which side you supported, people wanted to know what Trump was doing every single day. The right wanted to cheer him on, the left wanted to ridicule him, all of it meant big money.
When Biden took office, all of those networks saw their ratings drop significantly. Biden was boring. That is why he ran, that is why he won the Democratic nomination, that is why he won the Presidential election. America wanted a return to normalcy. We didn’t want to wake up each day wondering what mess our leader was going to cause today.
Five straight years of Trump doing something outrageous every single day. Several additional months were spent dealing with the fact that he riled up a mob who breached the Capitol building in an attempt to overthrow the government and appoint him Supreme Leader.
Two of those years were spent dealing with a Pandemic that took millions of lives and shuttered the world into their homes. Then as the pandemic was finally subsiding and life looked to be getting back to normal, inflation struck, forcing many more millions to find a way to get by, to pay the bills.
Americans are exhausted by everything that happened over the past six years. We’re exhausted that there wasn’t any break to catch our breath before having to think about the next disaster or Presidential election. And despite being so exhausted, we can’t take a break, or catch our breath, before having to get back to work to ensure that the man who dreams of being a fascist authoritarian doesn’t get to return to office.
Yes, progressives would like someone who better represents their interests as President. Many people would love to see a younger President with fresh ideas. Centrist Independents want to go back to a time when they felt they actually had a choice of who to vote for.
It isn’t an exciting ballot. It is a tiresome rematch.
But America understands the reason for that. Both 2020 and 2024 were to stop the MAGA movement from removing individuals rights, spreading hatred and bigotry, and from trying to tear apart our democracy. A democracy they no longer acknowledge as such.
An entire movement that believes America is supposed to be a Christian nation guided by God. A God who has granted Americans the right to have as many guns as they want, no matter how many innocent children get murdered.
A movement that wants to stand with an international war criminal charged with crimes against humanity for abducting, raping, and murdering Ukrainian children. A movement that wants to censor history and deny science. A movement that never denounced the storming of our Capitol building, and continues to idolize the attack and the election lies to this day.
Americans are exhausted because despite Trump losing after a single term, despite Republicans facing steep defeats in the last three elections, the GOP continues to support MAGA within its ranks.
That means Americans have to stay focused on 2024 and defeating both Trump and MAGA yet again. If Republicans don’t force MAGA out of their party, then we continue on to 2026 and 2028.
The never-ending quest for higher ratings and more money paved the way for Trump’s rise to power and the near fall of Democracy. The major news outlets won’t have learned this lesson, or maybe simply don’t care. They will continue to give Trump air time for every ridiculous lie he makes. The crazier the statement, the higher the ratings.
Why not spend airtime discussing all of the accomplishments that have happened in the last couple of years? Good news isn’t sexy, isn’t exciting, but it is important. The more negativity viewers see, the bigger they think the problems are. News has a responsibility to inform the public, and to remain factual, regardless of ratings.
America is stuck in a culture war, arguing over issues that hardly matter at all while children starve, are shot, and don't have proper access to education or healthcare. America is falling far behind other comparable nations in terms of happiness, health, and progress.
So yes, 2024 isn’t exciting and we are all exhausted. But being exhausted doesn’t mean we won’t vote for Biden. It simply means we wish we had more exciting choices, or even a choice at all. For now, boring will suffice.