The presidential election of 2024 was the most bizarre election cycle in my lifetime. Suffice it to say, I’ve been witnessing and participating in elections for many years…too many to state publicly.
How bizarre was this election cycle? President Biden steered the American economy away from a “pandemic recession” and then a pandemic-caused inflation to an economy that is the envy of the world. Unemployment is now super low. Inflation is almost non-existent. And yet, President Biden’s approval rating has remained dismal, and three-quarters of the voting public are dissatisfied with the direction of the country.
The year gets even more bizarre. One candidate was convicted of 34 counts of fraud and found libel for a “rape.” His political party rallied around him. Moreover, his popularity with the body politic remained high. The other candidate had one bad debate when he probably had a cold. The public and his party scorned him. Huh?
And the beat goes on…A cable news network accused one candidate of word salad because her answers to questions at a town-hall meeting were lengthy. In case you want to know, “world salad (is) a confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases, specifically (in psychiatry) as a form of speech indicative of advanced schizophrenia.” This network and other major media never accused the other candidate of such speech even though his speech was an exhaustive rambling stream of unconsciousness. Bizarre! Bizarre! Bizarre!
Then comes the election where the felon beats the replacement candidate who has had a stellar public service career. One candidate had reasonable solutions to such issues as housing and healthcare; the other had just concepts of a plan. The man-without-a-plan or clue was victorious. Bizarro!
Even more bizarre was that the clueless man, according to post-election analysis, was surprisingly competitive with women voters. He did nearly seven points better among those voters than he did against Biden in 2020, even though abortion was on the ballot this year but not in 2020. Moreover, these women voted for him but yet “expressed significant hesitation about his style, agenda, and potential impact on their rights.” (CNN, 11/12/24). What can you say?
You want bizarre. The two great issues of our times—climate change and racial/economic inequality—were rarely mentioned in this campaign. In fact, the voters claimed that these two issues were of little concern to them. How (and if) we resolve these issues will determine the course of this country for the rest of this century and beyond,
It has been a very bizarre year with inexplicable forces at work.
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This article appears in Nov 20 – Dec 3, 2024.