When I was really young, I believed I could make a positive impact through political action.

pomeline -

When I got a little older, I thought it highly unlikely, but wanted to at least be able to say to my kids "I tried", knowing I was right.

Then I got a little older, lost that small hope, and still didn't leave political stuff because I was still interested in public policy the way I've got an interest in history without expecting to ever use a time machine. And, you know... memes.

But this recent election? It's essentially devoid of policy and all about personality, which I don't care about at all. If politics is just theater, they dropped it's draw to me and shifted to another audience entirely, one that doesn't care about much other than culture and vibes. Worse, they've dropped all pretense and stopped even making the effort to pretend as everyone agrees the emperors have no clothes. And you know, they know they're lying, we know they're lying, they know that we know they're lying, and it still doesn't matter because that knowledge changes nothing.

Nobody thinks Biden is running the executive branch in any meaningful way, or should even be given the keys to his model T. Nobody thinks Kamala is running the country in his stead. It's not like she's got a packed campaign schedule for a Presidential nominee, but still. We don't know who is, and it still doesn't matter because things are functioning exactly how they were back a month or two ago when the media still pretended he hadn't gone through serious mental decline and was "sharp as a tack", or whatever their simplistic talking point slogan was at the time.