THE NEW NORMAL AND THE PROSPECTS FOR A POSTPOLITICAL FUTURE
“WHEN WILL THINGS be normal again?”
In politics, this is a powerful wish and a commonly heard refrain. It’s the desire that propelled Donald Trump into the White House with a Make America Great Again cap perched atop his head. His campaign tapped into a longing for an imagined 20th century standard, when the United States was militarily, technologically, and commercially dominant abroad and relatively homogeneous at home.
Now Joe Biden is rallying voters against Trump using the same technique. Biden’s “no malarkey” campaign bus is powered by the fumes of goodwill he generated in his role as Barack Obama’s vice president. He is selling the
