The beginning of a brand new 12 months ought to include nice expectations for higher days to come back, however, as a substitute, 2024 arrives with a weighty sense of dread.
I used to look ahead to a presidential election 12 months and the prospect to cowl and remark upon one other large, nationwide marketing campaign. For me, it was the political equal of the Tremendous Bowl, the World Sequence and the Olympics rolled into one year-long extravaganza.
This 12 months, nevertheless, appears to be like to be a repeat of 2020, essentially the most dismal 12 months within the annals of campaigning, though 2024 could possibly be much more dismal. It is vitally probably the contenders for the presidency will, as soon as once more, be President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the oldest pair of candidates ever to hunt the very best workplace within the land. Little question, it will likely be a bitter, uninspiring contest with the way forward for American democracy very a lot at stake.
Biden has been a reasonably good president – competent, low-key, expert in coping with a malfunctioning Congress and adept at international coverage. As a candidate, although, he’s simply plain horrible. In contrast to previous Democratic candidates, like former Presidents Barack Obama and Invoice Clinton, he lacks the flexibility to elevate an adoring crowd to heights of energized inspiration along with his charisma and eloquence. Plus, in political phrases, Obama and Clinton had been younger. Biden is outdated and, too typically, it exhibits.
Biden is a self-described transitional chief, and plenty of Democrats want he had picked this 12 months to permit that transition to a brand new era of leaders. As a substitute, he’s hanging on, hoping for 4 extra years, and risking a loss to the most damaging figure in American politics.
That determine is Trump, a bombastic con man, insurrectionist, and aspiring Mussolini. Essentially the most miserable factor about Trump’s third run for the presidency is that near half the residents of this nation appear untroubled by his abuses of energy, his boorish, incendiary rhetoric or his neo-fascist inclinations and are high quality with seeing him return to the White Home for one more chaotic time period in workplace.
Presidential politics was once enjoyable – outrageous, comical, thrilling and provoking all on the identical time. In 2024, although, the coming marketing campaign solely appears to be like ominous.
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