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When I was three or four years old, I found a house key carelessly left on a table by one of my parents. I picked it up and decided that I could pretend to drive a car by inserting the key into a wall outlet. This was an electrifying experience to be sure, but not one that I cared to repeat.
In the coming year, individuals who seek elected office will attempt to electrify the electorate in order to secure our votes in 2024. Charismatic candidates are likely to have the highest voltage and are, therefore, prized by their respective parties. We have become a culture so driven by charisma and celebrity that such candidates are in high demand—but are candidates with that sort of snap, crackle, and pop always the best choice?
We can all agree that Joe Biden is the least electrifying candidate on the planet. He has so little charisma that I doubt he would be able to power a night light. Apart from his sleek aviator glasses, there is nothing about him that smacks of celebrity. He is a capable and well-practiced politician, but he doesn’t exactly light up a room.
On the other side of the spectrum is Donald Trump, a candidate whose entire public image is a fiction generated by hosting the bogus TV show “The Apprentice.” This show allowed Trump to pretend to be a successful real estate mogul, a persona that ran counter to the actual truth: He was a lifelong failure whose repeated missteps in business were underwritten by his father. Nevertheless, America fell in love with the fiction created by producer Mark Burnett, who had scored a previous hit with the show “Survivor.”
Subsequently, he managed to gain his party’s nomination and then the presidency, based on his media-generated razzle-dazzle. Yes, Trump was electrifying, but electrifying in much the same way that a dangling powerline in a thunderstorm is electrifying. He threw massive rallies in which he promised to build a wall on the Mexican border, promised to end abortion rights, promised to withdraw America from international alliances, promised to ban Muslims from entering the country, mocked people with disabilities, and urged his supporters to “beat the hell out of” hecklers at his rallies.
Electrifying, to be sure. Building on this image, we were told that he alone could fix what was wrong with our country.
Spoiler alert: He fixed nothing, but then again, he didn’t think it necessary. He floated along on a sea of hogwash and vitriol, and his base ate it up. His signature accomplishments? Giving tax cuts to the wealthy, putting children in cages, cozying up to tyrants, and attempting to overthrow democracy.
Trump continues to electrify in much the same way that he has in the past. He has a talent for incendiary rhetoric and deeply offensive language directed at his perceived enemies, and the enemies list has grown ever longer with each passing day—especially now that he is finally being held to account for his criminality.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden—Mr. Bland—gets up every day and, without fanfare, goes to work, intending to fulfill his campaign promises to the American people. In case we have forgotten, here is what Biden has been trying to accomplish: lowering the cost of college debt; making prescription drugs more affordable; putting Americans back to work after a hideous pandemic that his predecessor made exponentially worse by deliberately spreading lies and disinformation; overhauling long-neglected infrastructure; fighting for the rights of women and minorities; and providing true leadership on the international stage as the world grapples with the rise of authoritarianism, religious extremism, and political violence.
What is the difference between Biden and Trump? One of them is a statesman; the other, a shock-meister.
Are we really looking to repeat the Trump experience? Do we really need to stick the key into the electrical outlet again?
I don’t know about you, but once was more than enough for me.
