Governance doesn’t bleed
It should be no surprise by now that the press covers the circus before it turning to boring non-nonsense. The former president’s performances fascinate (and draw eyeballs and clicks) in the way The Joker is an iconic Batman villain. His antics bleed and lead.
The challenge in how the news covers Donald Trump “news” is to cover what is news and not what is more Trumpish nonsense, suggests Brian Stelter, formerly of CNN. “Formerly,” because as a media critic he routinely “said the quiet part out loud” about the fecklessness of major news coverage. It got him cancelled.
News sources don’t like having their dirty laundry exposed in public.
The problem for Democrats is that taking governing seriously is not headline news. If their daily activities are not as eye-catching as frontal nudity or AR-15 parades or street violence, it is easy to assume they are doing nothing. Just yesterday, an acquaintance on Twitter complained that as Republicans cheer Trump’s violations of law and civic norms, Democrats mostly stand by and do nothing.
Two impeachments? Nothing. Calling out MAGA Republicans in a major address as a threat to democracy? Nothing. Defeating the hyped “red wave”? Nothing. What have you done for me lately? Indict a former president?
In a Zoom call last night, a participant wondered what “we” were doing to address the new voter ID implementation in North Carolina ahead of 2024. If it’s not happening now, this minute, and on the front pages, nothing is happening. Just as with Jack Smith’s documents investigation, just because it’s not on the front pages does not mean Democrats are sitting on their hands.
It’s just that responsible governance is not headline-grabbing. Try to make a banner headline of calling voters to check that they have proper IDs for the 2024 primaries.
Even spicy comments like these don’t make headlines that compete with the Trump show.