The Political Question of the Future: But Are They Real?
The bully pulpit is getting smaller. Open your phone, and there’s the Democratic rock star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly elected representative from New York, live-streaming on Instagram as she whips up some mac and cheese. Now it’s a video of maybe–presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke pouring a batter of “slime” with his daughter on a well-lit kitchen island. Now it’s Senator Elizabeth Warren, who recently announced she would run for president, making straight-to-camera small talk as she pulls from a beer bottle on Instagram Live.
This is the future of political rhetoric: handheld, streaming, and dappled with DIY lighting.
Politicians pressing the record button as they futz about the kitchen might seem like a pitiful degradation of political communication—from “four score and seven years ago” to four scoops of seven-grain bread dough. But as silly as is just the latest step in the long evolution of political speech. In the past century, such speech has become ever more casual as it has migrated from soapboxes to smartphones. Politicians who have mastered the patois of new platforms have consistently held an advantage over opponents who failed to appreciate the power of those technologies.
