As the US Presidential Election series finale approaches on November 5th, it continues to be an odd and jarring affair.
And largely unedifying all round.
Though it also feels like it’s running out of steam. It’s as if the facades are crumbling and no one really believes in any of the pantomime anymore – not even the main performers themselves.
Even Trump seems like a lower energy version of himself, trying to limp to the finish line by rehashing his greatest hits from previous campaigns.
There’s a palpable sense of deja vu.
There was supposedly another Trump ‘assassination attempt’, you know. That’s the third so far in this election cycle.
But nobody cares. And they can’t even put in the effort to make it seem significant anymore.
The apparent suspect was let go by the cops. Is that what happens when someone is supposed to have tried to assassinate a presidential candidate? They’re just allowed to go free afterward?
It’s gotten so lazy. It’s as if they blew the whole budget on the July 13th event, and then could barely string together a production at all for the second assassination story (the weird Ryan Wesley Routh incident): and now this third one was just a public statement with no corroborating evidence or corresponding incident at all.
Meanwhile, people were apparently leaving Trump rallies early in some cases – even while the former president was still speaking.
Kamala Harris – freshly christened as the ‘Anti Christ’ at the freakshow New York Trump rally on Sunday – has broadly been avoiding interviews. And when she does do interviews it’s mostly scripted platitudes and empty word salad.
It’s hard to tell whether there’s any real enthusiasm or momentum behind Harris’s campaign – or whether it’s mostly media and PR manipulation.
Or it’s just that there’s no other alternative for non-Trumpists but to rally around her at this point.
Trump meanwhile avoided Harris: by chickening out of a second televised debate. Probably wise.
And the actual sitting president, Joe Biden, seems to be off the radar entirely.
If the Jan.6th madness was, as many believe, a direct attack on American democracy: this tedious, tepid and tired election cycle is also an attack on American democracy, just a less dramatic one.
Instead of a high-octane debacle like Jan.6th, it’s a matter instead of killing democracy by boredom, apathy, and occasional grotesqueness – a slow, miserable death, as tired people gather around and ask whether the life support machine should be switched off or not.
Meanwhile, both sides have been trying to inject life back into the pantomime.
Elon Musk‘s cameo at Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania rally a few weeks ago – itself a shallow attempt to recreate the imagery of July 13th and remind everyone that God saved Trump from an assassin’s bullet – was just weird.
Did you see Musk’s weird evoking of the Epstein files whilst on stage this week? As if to say that it’s the opposition that’s got dirty hands in regard to Epstein – strangely forgetting Trump’s palpable and documented links to Epstein and Ghislaine (which have come to light again in recent days), as well as Musk’s own links with Epstein and with his ‘good friend’ Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Meanwhile, the spectacle of the now strangely Zionist figures of RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard joining the MAGA party also felt more weird in effect than powerful.
As did Harris turning to the Cheney household for support. A Democrat using the Cheneys for… what, credibility?
And it’s nice, I guess, that Kamala can wheel out stars like Eminem, Beyoncé and Springsteen: but Hillary did the exact same thing in 2016. Again, it’s all deja vu. And someone should’ve told them Jennifer Lopez wasn’t the best idea, given her proximity to ‘Diddy’.
Elsewhere, the absolute horror show at Madison Square Garden at the weekend is further evidence that American politics and society has long since degraded into a theater of the absurd.
On the other hand, Obama trying to guilt black men into supporting Kamala seems equally as unedifying.
The fact that a former president is actively campaigning on behalf of the current candidate is itself both unusual and a sign of desperation.
But it’s the same desperation that was on display in the late stages of Hillary’s campaign in 2016: which is why this all feels like deja vu.
One strategy where Trump has acted wisely is going on YouTube podcasts instead of doing mainstream media interviews.
While most of the interviews are fairly lightweight and lacking in substance, the format has allowed him to come across as personable and even likeable, even if he isn’t really saying anything of any great note.
In truth, the various YouTube hosts appear so grateful for the prestige of having Trump on their channels that they go very easy on him. They’re actually a little reminiscent of Tucker Carlson’s off-kilter interview with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
It’s still a smart approach on his part.
One thing he did do on the Andrew Schulz interview that caught my attention was continuing to push the idea that Iran was behind Thomas Crooks and the supposed July 13th assassination attempt.
Which suggests to me that Netanyahu is waiting until after a Trump victory before embarking on a more decisive operation against Iran: waiting to see if Trump wins, and then the US and Israel can perhaps launch some kind of joint enterprise.
It’s almost a given that Trump and Netanyahu are in contact: if not directly then at least via Jared Kushner or someone else.
But this Trump YouTube tour has also highlighted the collapse of legacy media, as far as credibility and reach is concerned.
The fact that Trump is reaching more people by going on a comedian’s show than Harris is by speaking to major broadcasters is indicative of the vastly altered media landscape.
Presumably desperate to play catch-up, Kamala was set to do the Joe Rogan show: but has apparently backed out of that now – which is terrible optics. She needs to do something like Rogan: because no one is watching NBC.
Trump’s own Rogan session last weekend was nothing special: and not particularly illuminating. But he’s winning people over that the Democrats are simply not reaching.
It’s still very difficult to see who’s going to ‘win’ on November 5th.
Though, at the moment, Trump seems to be playing a superior game. Even serving fries during the McDonalds PR thing was a fairly clever stunt.
Harris needs to pull something out of the bag in the next few days. Unless they’re just hoping the Trump campaign will somehow shoot itself in the foot – which, according to some, already happened with that horrendous New York rally on Sunday.
But outrage aside, the kind of things that got said in New York are not going to do any harm to the Republicans: worse stuff than that has been said for years by now. It doesn’t seem to matter.
The fact that it still seems to be close, or that different outlets are giving conflicting forecasts based on their biases, suggests it may actually be setting America up for another contested election result: and a sequel to Jan.6th four years ago.
Maybe *that’s* where all the budget is going: into the big series finale. There could be a special effects bonanza in store.
Maybe that’s why everyone has been so low energy: they’re saving themselves for the big climax.
Roger Stone, one of the architects of the previous plan to reject election results, was already revealed months ago to have been working on newer, updated plans for Trump and the Republicans to contest the election outcome if it doesn’t go their way.
Trump has already claimed foul play is taking place in Pennsylvania, in fact.
So a repeat unrest seems very likely. Which is in keeping with the tired sense of deja vu that has characterised this entire election.
Given the July 13th hoax – and the way the entire media and political arena ran with it – almost anything could happen on or around November 5th and the weeks that follow.
Pass the popcorn, please.
You have some pretty warped “takes”.