The Absurd Politics of the Late American Republic

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Just when you think it is not possible for things to get crazier on the American political scene, they do. 

 We have one presidential candidate who is at best morally unqualified for the job (and perhaps, legally so, before all is said and done) and we have another who is obviously too old for the demands of this all too serious position.

President Biden and the Democrats are making a huge mistake in not taking this opportunity to make a change. It’s all too obvious that he cannot win this race in his current state and there’s plenty of time right now to bring in a more compelling candidate and mount a legitimate campaign. Trump is a very beatable candidate. He’s not nearly as popular as he’d like to believe, has huge legal problems, and has lost a lot of faith with the Republican core. 

The Democrats are also making a mistake in framing this election as the battle to save democracy. I get the sentiment—Trump’s behavior in the aftermath of the 2020 election was reprehensible—but he’s too old and not charismatic enough to pose that kind of threat. What’s far more likely, maybe even probable, is that Trump will die in office or suffer a similar cognitive decline that we’ve seen in President Biden in recent years. Who he chooses as his VP running mate could become really important. His tendency to surround himself with morally dubious sycophants is what really scares me. 

Anyway, the problem with framing the election in this way is that it’s just not inspirational or aspirational enough. Sure, Americans may love democracy and freedom but what they really want is some believable hope for a better economic future. That is what wins elections anyway! The Democrats should be out celebrating things like the progress made to foster our reindustrialization and fix our ailing infrastructure and just let Trump’s legal problems speak for themselves. If I were in charge of Democratic strategy, this is what I’d be doing.

It's also crazy, by the way, to frame this election as the fight to save democracy and then run a cognitively challenged octogenarian candidate. President Biden is a patriot and a historically consequential American leader, but let’s be honest. Does he exude martial vigor? Does he have that confidence, swagger, and strength that makes you want to stand up and fight for your freedom? 

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Maybe it doesn’t even matter though.

Part of me wants to believe that but of course it does. We are facing an impossibly uncertain future and with the rise of AI, climate change, and multiple wars raging, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The fact that the supposed greatest democracy in history has produced a presidential election that is asking voters to choose between the morally and the cognitively questionable is something we will long be reckoning with.

However, if we can set this fear aside for a moment and look at things with a more cerebral mind, perhaps this isn’t as big of a deal as it seems. When we can look honestly and rationally at America over the last several decades, a different picture emerges. Why is it that every 4 years we hear how “this is the most important election ever,” yet nothing ever really changes for the American people? 

Obviously, some things do change. Taxes go up and down. Laws get passed and repealed or overturned. But when you look at our big issues, the things that are consequential to the long-term health of the Nation, there isn’t a difference at all. 

The National Debt is a perfect example of this. It doesn’t matter who is President or who is in control of Congress, the number just keeps going up and up and up. 

The same thing will happen this time around. With Trump, we’ll get deficit-funded tax cuts and with Biden, we’ll get more spending. The end result will be the same though: rising fiscal deficits. The absurd reality of the late American Republic is that when we head to the polls, we don’t get a genuine choice to make things better. One way or another, we are voting to push the can down the road and leave our problems to some future generation of Americans to solve. 

This is true across every major issue. Does anyone really have a good plan for immigration? How about the housing affordability crisis? Extreme wealth inequality? Monopoly power in the technology industry? Homelessness? Drugs? Putin? Climate migration? Gun violence?  

It’s not like these problems are not immediately consequential to the American people! While elections come and go and parties rise and fall, housing gets more expensive, the window for genuine economic opportunity gets smaller and smaller, and standards of living fade. Judged by these obvious measures, America is suffering and weakening. 

The question we have to ask ourselves is: Why? Why do we live in a world where our real problems our obvious, yet we do nothing to address them? 

Here’s the dark truth I’ve come to believe: while our politicians and political parties pretend to care about the American people, they don’t actually do, for they are serving different masters.  

When I came of age as a full-fledged American citizen, the first election I could vote in was Bush versus Gore. Even way back then, both candidates were talking about the need to protect against special interest groups. I didn’t have enough life experience to understand what they were talking about but I do now. Politicians are human beings just like you and me and, like it or not, respond to incentives in the same ways. For decades now, politics and policy have moved not via the will of the people but rather through the pocketbooks of interest groups. 

The problem of special interest capture goes back a long way. Remember Eisenhower’s Farewell Address warning us all about the military-industrial complex?

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Remember, this is not from some ordinary President. We’re talking about the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in WWII here. If he was worried about this, given his Godlike status and influence in military circles at the time, we definitely should be.

Look, I know we love a good conspiracy theory here in America but it’s not like this is some secret. The takeover of the halls of power by special interest groups has been done in broad daylight. And it’s not just the usual suspects of the military-industrial complex. It’s also the (mostly liberal) tech and media companies, labor unions, public service employee unions…etc. In other words, everyone is on the take. Things don’t change because the status quo is working for these special interest groups. And until we address this issue the American people will continue to suffer. 

If there is a silver lining to this absurd election it’s this: maybe all the craziness will finally wake us up to the rotten lie at the core of our system. Maybe we’ll finally see the truth that to save our democracy, we must do something more than shuffle one party after another in and out of office. Maybe we’ll see the truth that we must band together and demand that our political representatives work for all of us instead of just some. 

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