Make Politics Boring Again
“You won’t have to worry about my tweets when I’m president”
That’s something that not a lot of us would have expected a politician to ever say. Nevertheless Joe Biden did during his presidential bid in late 2020 and it was a strong message that many in the American electorate could resonate with.
Exhausted from the roller coaster that was COVID and the populists who entered the mainstream in Brazil, America and the UK (among many other nations) there is a plea for boring, normal politics.
I noticed the trend just after the resignations of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss and the ascendancy of Rishi Sunak to the premiership. Sunak’s political posture has to me has been one of careful consideration and at times absolute silence. This ultimately started with his ban on ministers from appearing on the Breakfast TV and radio rounds. What would usually occur is a minister involved in a prevalent issue would do the rounds on sky news, BBC and Good Morning Britain giving various interviews in short succession. This meant that they were largely in the public eye often attracting publicity around their issue. By reversing this, Sunak is essentially giving himself and his government some time to catch their breath and while still trailing labour by 20 points in the years first voting intention poll, he has largely done his party a favour by clawing back some good public opinion of what is largely a very unpopular tory brand.
This similar tactic has been used by Joe Biden during the first stint of his presidency. For example, he only gave his first press conference 64 days after taking office. While some thought this, and many other examples of him lying low, could be toxic to his chances of success in the Whitehouse as this would let Republicans take control of the media narrative his results in the midterms largely speak for themselves. The red wave that was predicted to come never came and Republican infighting almost cost them the speakers gavel.
While I do feel as though people want to return to a state of normality and boringness in their politics I feel as if this is a symptom of something a bit more serious. This to me seems like the public repudiation of populist politicians and their outrageous personas. It feels like for the first time in a while people want stability. People want the government to actually do its job. To get along with it and not make a noise while doing so. This sentiment will become especially clear towards the end of next year as it is a major election season in the US and UK.
But at the end of the day the fact that politics is starting to get a bit boring might, in fact, be a great thing. A chance for all of us to recalibrate and to re-establish what we expect from our leaders. To what extent do we indulge in their outrageous rhetoric and policy? Will we begin to value policy over personality? Or do we simply just want nothing to do with it all? I guess only time can tell.
