Life During Showtime

relax and take it all in.

Long Island played host to an infamous Donald Trump rally this week, where the 45th President of the United States packed out both the inside and outside of the Nassau Coliseum (affectionately known to us Islander fans as simply “The Barn”).

45 played all the hits, going off the cuff at any given moment, hammering home his key talking points on immigration, cost of living, and national security.

The raucous Coliseum crowd, as it had during it’s tumultuous on-again, off-again tenancy with the Islanders, provided an intense atmosphere.

It was, regardless of your political affiliation, a spectacle.

That’s sort of my point today.

Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris feels like the final act of a run of unprecedented absurdity dating back to the fateful day Trump announced his candidacy and waved at the crowd and cameras while descending on his gold escalator.

A fitting end to a trilogy that even Hollywood itself couldn’t script- and we don’t even know the outcome of the final scene yet!

I’ve made reference to what the media has called “The Exhausted Majority”, and for good reason. You see, the 2016 election was pure novelty. Take a time machine back to 2014 and ask someone how many pickup trucks they saw with Trump flags out on the highway. They’d look at you like you were insane. In fact, ask them the last time they saw a procession of vehicles with flags and paraphernalia for any presidential candidate and they’d still look at you funny.

2008 Obama mania was feverish (and the national media ever so complicit) yet the most you ever saw were “Yes We Can!” and “Hope” bumper stickers on the back of Prius’ and Subarus. (I doubt John McCain or Mitt Romney even sold over 20,000 stickers or T-shirts).

Fast forward to 2024, and we’ve not just become acquainted with open displays of political tribalism, we’ve grown tired of it.

Passionate partisanship has been the soup du jour for the better part of a decade.

Feeling exhausted? It’s natural and understandable.

What if there was another way to look at it?

Let’s Take a Ride Around Long Island

I love cruising around. Taking the long route to my destination just to stay in perpetual motion instead of bumper to bumper traffic is a no-brainer for me: listen to another song or two, enjoy the freedom of whipping around 4,000 lbs of machinery that’s trajectory and speed is at your beck and call.

It’s a joy that I think will be stripped from us in this lifetime, but that’s for an article for another day. )Feel free to dig my profile up on Spotify, it’s driving playlists galore).

Naturally, I was going to survey the scene on rally day.

The Nassau Coliseum parking lot looked like an SEC tailgate, and that was just past noon.

People had slept over in the parking lot the night before, in order to win their play in line in the “first come, first served” layout that Trump rallies follow. The police and security presence was overwhelming (which is probably a good thing, given recent events) and the energy in the air was palpable.

It was political Beatlemania.

Did it hit the same as it did during the massive, hundreds-of-vehicles Trump parades down the LIE did during the fateful pandemic year of 2020? No, it did not.

Was it as shocking to the eye and unusual as it was during the eminence of the movement in 2016? Not by a longshot.

It was almost expected, instilling a reaction more akin to there they go again instead of I can’t believe this.

Naturally, the opposition was loud and proud as well, though in numbers they paled in comparison.

There was shouting across Hempstead Turnpike, name calling contests between watermelon sticker and “Free Palestine” poster toting college students and 47 year old fathers of three with lifted trucks with “No More Bullshit” flags.

It was a sight to see.

This inherent division and it’s raw, visceral displays during such polarizing events as rallies can be both amusing and disheartening, but either way, they evoke emotion, even if we’ve seen this same song and dance a thousand times before by now.

Ask anyone with a pulse, and they’ll tell you emotionality can be exhausting after a while.

There’s a strong feeling amongst the general populace of “I just want this to be over” which, while understandable, is an exercise in futility.

We have the final crescendo of the last 8 weeks until Election Day, and let’s not all be so naive as to think we’ll have a winner the night of. It’ll drag on and on, with concession refusals and demands of recounts galore.

So what do we do?

Tune it all out?

Good luck.

You’ve got a verifiable computer in your pocket with at least 4 or 5 social media platforms on it, not to mention IRL friends and family and coworkers.

The Final Act of the most unprecedented, chaotic run in modern American politics is far from finished.

“Okay, but you still didn’t say what we should do”

Work with me here…

Reframe Everything as a Positive

One of the most powerful psychological tools at our disposal is the mindset of “reframing everything as a positive”. Obviously the issue at hand is less than ideal, but what’s the silver lining?

It’s a bit of the Jocko Willink “Good” school of thought (though I do find the concept of “Extreme Ownership”, while noble, to err on the side of unrealistic martyrdom when employed by the general populace who weren’t Navy SEALs).

Nonetheless, it’s a framework that when employed properly, can help us navigate otherwise less than ideal environments.

Tweaked your spine and you’re laid up? You can catch up on reading and studying, and place more emphasis on work.

Government locked you in your homes for months on end? Spend some quality family time and enjoy the excuse to unplug from life’s unpleasantries and demands.

Favorite team didn’t make the playoffs? You got some more free time on your hands and you’ll save some $$ not shelling out on seats to the home games.

There’s a zillion examples.

Applying Reframing to the 2024 Election

When applying this to the madness that is the culmination of this crazy election cycle, the third straight of it’s kind, the answer is simple: Enjoy the show.

Think about it logically for a moment (I know, politics and logic, like oil and water..) and take a step back.

We have a matchup of a larger than life billionaire real estate tycoon turned reality TV star, battling all sorts of legal trouble who is as polarizing and large scale a public figure as most of this country has ever seen… versus an aggressive woman from California who came up as a prosecutor and has, some how some way, thrust herself into the national spotlight as the unelected Democratic nominee after Joe Biden’s abrupt bowing out of the race just months ago.

There isn’t anything normal about this election cycle whatsoever.

It’s whirlwind chaos and a cult-like following versus the national media establishment and an installed figurehead.

Nationalism vs. Identity Politics.

Mudslinging insults vs. awkward laughing and word salad.

It’s an election so wrought with tension and general incivility amongst the American populace that it’s damn near broken the national fabric more than a couple times, but we’ve stood strong.

It might not make for the best times in American history, but taking a step away from it all and looking at it through a different lens, it certainly makes for an entertaining display.

The lively rallies, the interviews with internet celebrities, the incorporation of the most popular album of the summer into a Democratic campaign slogan… the hits just keep on coming.

It’s yelling and screaming, it’s memes, it’s the “fyp” and the X timeline going crazy with the most surreal yet hilarious partisan content you’ve ever seen.

These are the days you’ll tell your children or future children and grandchildren about.

American politics has jumped the shark: it’s full-fledged reality TV.

We’ve become so encapsulated and enamored of our own viewpoints that we’ve all but lost the plot and succumbed to the madness, so why not enjoy the freefall?

In the words of Martin Tyler after Sergio Aguero hit the net back in 2012:

“I swear you’ll never see anything quite like this again".

Let’s Take a Trip to 2032

We’ll make it there, don’t worry.

There will likely be a return to what we’ve always known to be a more “normal” election- two combatants with squeaky clean, PR-curated images debating the issues in a refreshingly civil but oh so boring manner.

Arena rallies with tailgates and partying will be replaced with the more familiar half-filled civic convention centers of yesteryear, and the candidates won’t deviate from their scripts.

There will be the exchanges of fake handshakes and cheesy formalities, photo ops of candidates in ill-fitting suits with overeager college kids, hashtags that don’t trend organically.

It might offer respite and be refreshing to those of us that weathered the political storm of the late 10’s and early 20’s, but something will be missing.

You won’t have the sights and sounds of political tribalism and unrestrained emotionality in public.

You won’t have the “where were you when…” moments.

You won’t have any stories of peculiar behavior and over the top political grandstanding to tell your little ones about.

You won’t have the intoxicating hit of adrenaline and emotion that had become so intertwined with American politics.

You’ll feel as if something is missing, because it is…. and then it hits you:

You miss The Show.

Enjoy it while it lasts 😉

🍿

Love always,

John Abbate

20.9.2024