Since JFK inaugurated the television era of politics in 1960, successful presidential candidates have been theatrical candidates. Joe Biden promises an end to that era.
Biden promises an end to that era. The narrative drama in his performances comes largely from the possibility that he will step on his own words and create a self-damaging storyline. After marinating for 36 years in the U.S. Senate, the best that can be said about his political persona is that it is bland. What is now clear is that his claim on the presidency comes not despite blandness but in essential ways because of it.
Let’s end the permanent campaign, the reformers say, and have short European-style elections. Huddled at home since March, with only episodic appearances, Biden has been fine with that part. Let’s embrace a more parliamentary brand of politics, dispensing with the exaggerated emphasis on personalities, by making the election fundamentally about the platforms of competing parties. Biden, of necessity, is fine with that part, too.
Even if Biden’s cult of non-personality is a short-lived phenomenon, the moment of appreciation for the virtues of blandness is historically noteworthy. The author Garry Wills once wrote of “The Kennedy Imprisonment.” The alluring parts of the Kennedy dynasty—the fusion of idealism, glamour, and power—created a heroic mythology that depended heavily on illusion. The pressure of maintaining the illusion led inevitably to excess, scandal, tragedy.
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