Sometimes it just helps if you’re crazy

09-24-20

Following politics closely isn’t for regular, normal people... especially ones who value their sanity.

Never ending news cycles of hysterical coverage from every corner, on every topic and hypocritical goal post shifting when the facts on the ground are inconvenient to a particular partisan goal, there’s really no escape these days.

News, commercials, radio spots, mailers, yard signs. It’s literally everywhere.

But, if I’m being really honest, I’m having a harder and harder time taking the media, and this campaign season seriously when much of observable reality only makes sense to the insane.

The Biden campaign has called a “lid” - press speak for no publicly reportable happenings - by 9:30 a.m. for a full third of the days in September. This doesn’t seem to concern many of our political pundits and newscasters, who aren’t curious enough to ask any questions on this or many other subjects surrounding the Vice President.

We’ve all seen footage of Biden in interviews, where it’s obvious he’s reading answers, but no media will talk about the TelePrompTer working live and in real time, even when his head moves from the camera to somewhere off screen as he’s reciting an answer.

This isn’t to knock the Vice President. I would not be thrilled to have to constantly answer very private questions about my cognitive abilities on a national stage. But I also have zero desire to run for President and lead the free world.

Mental sharpness is kind of a prerequisite for the job.

So is the ability to answer questions on the fly.

And while every polling outfit and news network will tell you exactly why their polling is showing an 85% chance of a Biden victory, no one really wants to talk about how all the mechanics of a campaign happen, including Get Out the Vote efforts, when that same campaign has suspended it’s complete national ground game since March.

Maybe the Biden-Harris Team has some great ideas using digital platforms and new ways of motivating people to vote. Maybe the DNC had a complete turnaround after the dysfunction of 2016. Maybe they all decided that nationalizing all the things works in presidential politics too.

Wouldn’t that seem newsworthy for the national political press? I’m sure that the consultants running these programs would love the kinds of profiles and features that would get more eyeballs on their messages. Unearned media works in politics.

Just ask President Trump.

Y’all... this is where it pays to be crazy.

You see all these media and cultural messages. Doesn’t matter the topic, there are levers of power and pressure being used to drive politics and political action. Getting groceries isn’t politics free, with national brands conveying the left’s preferred political stances on a variety of topics. Not necessarily because these corporations agree, they are just a business that likes making money. Getting cancelled for stepping off the ideological plantation is not good for stock prices, or the bottom line. And there isn’t an ad agency on Madison Avenue that isn’t completely woke in the ways of our modern Social Justice landscape.

It’s easy to buy the hype and fall in line. Just repeat today’s mantra and celebrate the intolerance of tolerance. It’s the 2020’s version of the Moral Majority... but even less fun.

It’s quite Orwellian on its face.

It does you no good to remember than Senator Kamala Harris couldn’t poll above 10% in the primary field, even as it narrowed. Biden only ran away with the nomination by early plurality and ranked voting as the best hope for Democrats. He’s never really gotten the enthusiasm of the more left populist campaigns of Warren and Sanders.

And that was before all the craziness surrounding campaigning and COVID struck election 2020.

It’s better to think that normalcy involves a politician who can’t remember the Pledge of Allegiance and needs a typist to handle a one on one interview. In this context, regular order and a return to civility absolutely means you shouldn’t ask about the physical capabilities of a politician who isn’t seen in public a third of the time, 45 days out from the general election.

Honestly, if more of the media did their jobs, President Trump wouldn’t need to crassly bring attention to the fact that his opponent doesn’t leave the house all that often.

Craziness pays here. Because trying to wade through this nonsense while remaining sane isn’t always possible. Heck, half the time I wonder if I am crazy and what I’m seeing in front of my eyes is even really happening.

After everything 2020 has thrown at us.... it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise.