Unrepresentative Government - Today, the political class is profoundly out of touch.

[Geee]

American Greatness

We are in the midst of a presidential campaign year. It’s supposed to be the Super Bowl for political junkies like me. But it feels strange and muted, and, so far, its vibe is uncomfortably similar to 2020

The 2020 election was strange because of COVID, which became a pretext to change the rules in order to rig the outcome. This time, there is no such excuse for a “basement campaign.” It’s true that Biden is old, feeble, and unpopular. And Trump has been sidelined, quite deliberately, by a malicious New York judge who won’t allow him to travel and conduct his signature rallies. The problem, however, now infects all electoral politics.

 

There used to be rituals common to all political campaigns, but you don’t see them much anymore. This included multiple events taking place every day, announced in advance, and open to the media and the public.

Pizzerias, diners, churches, factories, local party meetings, parades, town halls, and clubs would frequently feature a visit and short speech by one candidate or another. You see aspects of this in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries and sometimes in local races, but lately it is rare to see them in presidential and congressional campaigns.

Kabuki Theater Political Campaigning

Biden’s recent visit to Tampa got me thinking about this. There were news stories announcing his visit in advance, but it was impossible to find out where it was. The media did not even acknowledge its own silence, taking it for granted that members of the public should not get to hear the president speak.

When Biden arrived at the local community college campus—a location announced at the last possible movement—he met with hand-picked local party functionaries, and he gave a rather extreme speech that praised abortion as if it were the Eighth Sacrament.