It feels like the past three elections (including this one in 2024) have just been staggeringly mediocre.
Back in 2016, it was Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Clinton seemed to many to be entitled to "her turn" in the White House, and spoke of crashing through that glass ceiling as if it was a fait accompli. Many took the campaign of Donald Trump as a joke, yet he just kept winning. Also, the Republicans in the field - with the notable exception of Jeb Bush, to his credit - simply refused to attack Trump and expose his seeming weaknesses, knowing that doing so would draw his ire, and unleash bad publicity upon themselves. They might as well have done it anyway, as one after the other was swept aside, as Trump first marched to the Republican nomination, and then to the presidency itself, shocking Hillary and the Democrats, who were sure that Hillary offered them their best chance of winning, despite the poll numbers months earlier showing otherwise. Indeed, Bernie Sanders beat Trump more convincingly than Hillary did, according to the polls before Hillary officially took the Democratic nomination.
That election felt like a new low. Trump added both lies and classlessness. His campaign seemed to appeal to racists and sexists and xenophobes alike. Hillary, meanwhile, was being forced down the throat of everyone who did not want to see Trump win. She was made out to be this model citizen and leader with integrity, and such issues that seriously put her trustworthiness and integrity in question - such as her lucrative speaking fees at powerful Wall Street banks, which she had a difficult time explaining, or her asking the Democratic party leadership (illegally) for help to get past Bernie Sanders, and then receiving that help (again illegally), or her powerful husband meeting with the then sitting Attorney General Loretta Lynch at a Phoenix airport and shutting down that airport temporarily, then claiming that they were just shooting the breeze, even though the investigation into Hillary Clinton suddenly was suspended the very next day. Or how about her getting a debate question (illegally) from Donna Brazile. All of those things and more seemed to taint the shiny image of Hillary Clinton which the mainstream Democrats were trying to sell to the country. Clearly, the strategy did not work, as they lost the election that they had previously acted as if it were a foregone conclusion, only admitting their doubts at her ability to win the election after the fact.
Then came 2020. Trump was the incumbent, and after four ridiculous years in the White House, he was proclaiming himself to be unbeatable in a fair election, but was yelling about "massive voter fraud" at every chance. Again, Bernie Sanders appeared to be winning, and seemed to have a real chance, before one after another mainstream Democrats dropped out just before Super Tuesday, and Joe Biden suddenly emerged as the winner, eventually getting the Democratic nomination. At least he did beat Trump, which was more than Hillary managed to do. But the aftermath of the election was, frankly, a clusterfuck. Dozens of court cases and recounts, none of which were as close as the recounts in the 2000 election. The Trump legal team bent over backwards to make it clear that they were not making a case for "massive voter fraud" in any of the 62 court cases when under oath, instead merely focusing on "irregularities" that would not overturn the election. Still, they lost 61 of those 62 cases. Still, when they were not under oath (and thus not prone to the serious legal consequences of lying), the Trump team screamed to anyone who would listen that they had been cheated, and were victims of "massive voter fraud." They claimed to have irrefutable proof, although they neither used that in court, nor showed it to anyone who seemed to matter. Then there was the whole January 6th fiasco, which I still feel was nothing short of an attempted coup d'état.
In 2020, Biden and Trump set the record for oldest average age between the two major party presidential nominees. Now, they have eclipsed that record, which of course they themselves set, by four years with this rematch. The Trump side is relentlessly trying to paint Biden as being too old and in serious mental decline, which frankly is cheap and easy to do. They ignore the signs of Trump's own decline, which feels like it is getting serious (he has repeatedly referred to Biden as Obama, for example).
Neither of these two nominees offers a fresh or exciting take or face. They both have held the presidency before, so we know what we are getting. And despite misgivings by people on both sides of the political aisle towards both of these candidates, it is clear after this most boring and predictable Super Tuesday ever that a rematch of 2020 is exactly what we will get. Nobody really wanted it, and many of us, in fact, were dreading it.
Yet, here we are. Once again, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee for a third straight time, and Biden, the Democratic nominee for a second straight time.
The prospect of another Trump term (and I still believe that he will win, but hope to hell that he won't) is incredibly depressing. This man - who attempted to dethrone democracy in order to stay in power, who's documented corruption and decadence has made him legendary in this field, who embodies the very worst excesses of Americans, who once labelled Mexicans as criminals and rapists and wanted a ban of Muslims emigrating to the country, and who once labelled dozens of countries in Africa and Latin America as "shithole nations" and who posted a video of a supporter of his yelling "white power" during the 2020 election, and who mocked a disabled reporter and almost cost himself the election with his "grab them by the pussy" commentary about how big of a star he was and how this allowed him to get away with all sorts of bad behavior - is now winning in this race, according to the latest polls.
Meanwhile, the prospect of another Biden term in office is not much more exciting. True, democracy might survive a little longer. Maybe even another defeat will finally make King Con Don and Cult 45 go away. But I would not even bet on that, even if it does happen. And even if it does, you can bet that some asshole will try to replace him and become the new Trumpy figure for the Republican party, like Ron DeSantis tried unsuccessfully to do this time around. It feels like just a matter of time before somebody topples what's left of our democracy. Even if it's not Trump, it will be somebody else. And another Biden term will simply delay that. It feels like the mainstream Democrats will not get the lesson to sink in, that they and their elitism is a major problem, and has been feeding the Trump cult political machine from the first.
When I was younger, I naively believed that election years were good for the country. That they at the very least brought the most pertinent issues to the eye of the public, and that informed debate helped to lay out the most important issues for the country, and thus, to eventually address them.
Now, I dread elections. It feels like they last forever. Indeed, this 2024 presidential election felt like it started almost as soon as the 2020 election ended, or at least as soon as Biden took the oath of office, and it was clear that those ridiculous Trump political rallies were continuing as they always had. It feels like our elections these days are more about disinformation and mediocrity from both of the major parties.
No wonder there is record apathy and consistently low voter turnout.
Already, a part of me just really wants this damn election to be over, even though in some regards, it is only just beginning.
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