Performance Politics Is Killing Our Country
Our Political Leaders Are No Longer Serious People
Performative politics is absolutely killing our political system and American democracy. Just absolutely destroying it and making the United States the laughing stock of the rest of the world.
Don’t believe it?
Well, just look at the news cycle over the past few days and there are more examples of stupid, asinine performative political moments than can be listed within the confines of a short essay.
Here are just a few:
GOP/MAGA “Rambos” and “Gravy SEALs”, all armed to the teeth and decked out in tactical gear, posing for photos as they wait to shoot down a Chinese military balloon located at 65,000+ feet, posing with AR-15s (max. effective range of about 350 meters), shotguns, and 9mm Glock pistols as they wait to bring down the balloon because, in the words of some clown who sits in the US House, it might be carrying biological weapons or other such nonsense (Senator JD Vance, failed Arizona politician Kari Lake, Missouri State Representative Ben Baker, among others);
New York GOP House member (and number three in the GOP House leadership) Elise Stefanik ranting about how Democrats want to remove chocolate milk from school lunches, stating that she is ready to stop it and die on that hill, acting like she is the Charlton Heston of chocolate milk (they will have to pry the carton of chocolate milk “from her cold, dead hands”);
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in his recent budget message, proposing the removal of sales taxes on the purchase of GAS stoves, but not electric stoves, all because some midlevel federal government bureaucrat published a report that nobody read advocating the banning of gas stoves for environmental or climate reasons, a huge issue for the MAGA base (potential DeSantis voters when he runs for president and tries to turn the country into Florida, where, in his words, “woke goes to die”);
Ranting and railing in the Missouri State House and Senate about bogus CRT curriculum being taught in schools (it’s not), the threat of transgender athletes competing in girls sports (all 5-10 such athletes in the state), and the banning of “drag shows” for children in public schools (nothing about private school students) because, as the Missouri Senate Majority leader and the rest of the GOP “supermajority” in the state legislature have stated on more than one occasion, these are the most pressing issues in the minds of Missouri residents;
The beltway media machine and the minions of “liberal Twitter” posting, ranting about, and therefore, legitimizing the crazy rantings of a neurotic and psychologically unhinged Donald Trump because they are addicted to this garbage and need it, are “jonesing” for it, are desperate for it like meth addicts, because the craziness generates clickbait, “likes”, and sells books.
Look at Twitter, Facebook, Truth Social, Fox News, OAN, NewsMax, MSNBC, CNN, or any newspaper or magazine, from the Washington Post to the Washington Examiner, and it’s one example after another of the litany of “shiny objects” pissing off one side or the other, fueling the performance politics that is so much part of the reality show that could be titled American Politics Animal House.”
These performative clowns and court jesters act like governing is a game and those of us watching act as if what’s going on is a hysterical distraction from the challenges of our daily lives, like watching the latest episode of Big Bang Theory, or for those old enough to remember, Mr. Ed, Green Acres, or The Beverly Hillbillies (the Missouri State Legislature, with Governor Mike Parson playing the role of “Jed Clampett”).
Unfortunately, the task of governing isn’t a joke and doing the people’s business isn’t a game or situation comedy.
Governing is hard work and the clowns involved in all of this are not interested in taking on that burden or actually doing things that address the problems facing the country at the national, state, and local level. They would rather throw bombs, create havoc, tear down the other side, and just perform, all in the name of owning their opponents and those who don’t agree with them, winning their stupid zero sum games, and gaining and exercising personal political power, no matter the cost or the consequences.
If we are to survive as a democracy, we as citizens need to break our political “infotainment” addiction. We need to understand and work to counteract
the reality that one of the two major political parties in this country is not serious about governing, that they are more concerned with conspiracy theories and the world of “alternative facts” that feed their “base” allowing them to secure votes, make money, and gain and exercise personal political power.
We as citizens need to become more engaged and become more active in challenging the grift and lies. We need to hold these morons accountable for their actions, factual distortions, and outright lies. Quit reading this stuff. Quit contributing money. Quit voting for these clowns. Quit watching or listening to their garbage.
Americans need to reject the narcissism and nihilism that currently drives the American political narrative and drags down our society and culture. We must vote with our feet and quit watching the entertainers that populate the “infotainment” world, the very “infotainment” world that has created the current mess.
To do anything less is to surrender to the inevitable fall of American democracy.