A decade ago, television was consumed by a feverish fascination with envisioning a political landscape of unprecedented turmoil. From the blood-tinged antics surrounding the Fitzgerald Grant presidency in "Scandal" to the cunning machinations that propelled Frank Underwood's meteoric rise in "House of Cards," and the tumultuous fortunes of Selina Meyer in "Veep," the small screen served as a platform for a nation's wild imagination. Writers envisioned a world starkly contrasting with our own, where the competent, technocratic Obama administration faced gridlock after the initial midterm elections. Real-world politics, while not entirely devoid of gloom, often lacked the element of the unexpected.
Now, as Kamala Harris potentially emerges as the next Democratic presidential nominee, following Joe Biden's announcement on Sunday that he will not seek reelection, the contrast to those earlier days is startling. There's little need for a dramatization of political chaos, as no script could have captured the tumultuous three-and-a-half weeks America has endured. This is not to undermine the profound consequences that await the November election, nor the potentially dire implications of the attack on Donald Trump's life this summer.
But before Labor Day, traditionally when the "normal," non-digital masses tune in to election news, we've witnessed a would-be assassin attempt to assassinate Trump, briefly halting the relentless efforts to persuade the incumbent president to abandon his reelection bid. This pressure campaign, sparked by Biden's historically lackluster debate performance on June 27—unprecedented given it occurred between two men not yet their party's official nominees—was one of the most consequential television broadcasts of the century. It was yet another spectacle in a season overflowing with them.
To solely interpret the political developments of 2024 through the lens of television would be a gross oversimplification. To borrow a phrase, everything that has transpired this year is embedded in the context of our lived experiences and the events that preceded them. Donald Trump, who emerged from the murky depths of American culture's darkest and strangest impulses in 2016, was not merely a candidate, a president, and then a candidate again; he was a guarantee that, for as long as he pursues the Oval Office, politics will fulfill Hollywood's wildest dreams, albeit with the curse of a monkey's paw. Presidential elections would never again be dull or boring.
The elections of 2016, with its "Access Hollywood" tape, and 2020, conducted remotely amidst a pandemic and national uprising, hardly need retelling. But 2024 has somehow surpassed them both, unleashing a series of events so novel and bizarre that the news itself began to assume a skewed, unhinged quality. Before Biden's announcement that he would not seek reelection, virtually anything seemed possible. After all, what's another pivotal moment in American history when so many have already accumulated?
Crucially, the landscape has transformed since the days of "House of Cards," "Scandal," and "Veep." The chaotic disarray within the federal government is now a stark reality of American existence, a daily reminder. The irony lies in the fact that the presidency that promised to restore a sense of familiarity and stability to American politics, and succeeded for a fleeting moment, now finds itself at its conclusion with a series of distressing ironies. Take "Veep" for instance, where Selina Meyer's tumultuous political journey as a vice president prone to misstatements and powerlessness — eventually ascending briefly to the presidency after her predecessor's misfortunes — once seemed like a farcical backdrop for humor. Now, Harris's 2024 presidency bears striking similarities to Meyer's fictional decade. But the essence of "Veep" was to push the boundaries of the American political system to examine Meyer's intricate psychology. Reality, however, is far less interested in character development and offers no tidy resolutions.
For those who sympathize with the Democratic cause, the months ahead hold promise yet also significant peril, as we navigate uncharted waters, as former President Barack Obama aptly noted. We are no longer burdened by outdated perceptions of presidential drama. Series like "Veep" and "House of Cards" existed as a jaded contrast to the idealism portrayed in "The West Wing" and the relentless rotation of presidents in "24." On the day Biden announced his decision, the New York Times published an article by Aaron Sorkin, imagining the Democrats nominating Mitt Romney, a Republican, in a statesmanlike gesture to save the republic.
However, real life doesn't follow such scripts. It unfolds more like "House of Cards," where plot twists often seem random yet are masterminded by a singular, cunning intelligence — the show's protagonist. (The whispers around Biden's decision echo the sentiment that Nancy Pelosi's version of "House of Cards" would be far more compelling.) But the truth is, political drama as a genre was already fading into irrelevance, paling in comparison to the shocking, bizarre, and undeniably compelling reality of 2024.
