It's 2016 and Nothing Matters

Bobby Valentine as Ambassador to Japan. Disputes over the extent to which Russia influenced our election. Exxon Mobile's CEO to lead the State Department. Kanye West, fresh out of the "looney bin" to visit the President-elect. Continued questions over how the President-elect will handle his business dealings as President, amidst rumors that Turkey is already trying to blackmail him using his private business ties. Rick Perry, who forgot the name of the Energy Department when he wanted to get rid of it in 2011, will now serve as Energy Secretary. The President-elect is going to stay on as Executive Producer of the new season of "Celebrity Apprentice" for NBC/Comcast. Jim Brown and Ray Lewis had a meeting with the President-elect. The First Lady isn't moving to the White House. The National Security Adviser is pushing conspiracy theories on Facebook on how their former opponent and her campaign chairman were running a child-sex ring out of a pizza shop in Northwest DC. The White House's chief strategist is a "white nationalist." His two biggest surrogates during the election are both going to get no job in his administration.

All of this comes on the heels of the most ridiculous election in my lifetime. As a candidate, he called for building a wall on the border with Mexico, the imprisonment of his opponent, Russia to hack his political opponents, and said he sexually assaulted women, and it's okay, because he's rich and famous. The man who will serve as our next President lost the popular vote by 2.8 million votes, or over 2%. He pulled off the near impossible feat of winning the Presidency without winning a majority of his party's primary vote, or the general election vote. He accused a primary-opponent's father of being involved in the JFK assassination, and that primary opponent eventually endorsed him, but not until after attacking him at his own convention. The whole thing was silly season.

Please don't tell me facts, policy, or anything substantive matters anymore. We have entered an age of cultural/tribal politics, where literally everything is identity. Donald Trump tapped into a form of hyper-masculinity that had a cult following, particularly across the Upper Midwest region of the country and down through the South, if for no other reason than it was standing up to the "uppity" smart liberals in the big cities, and the "others" whom are taking America away from the "Man's man." Many of Trump's supporters openly admit when asked that they don't think he'll actually "build the wall," or bring back the factories and mines, or really do much of anything that he said, they just like that he said he will, and said he'd stand up for them. The guy literally said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose any votes, and frankly, there's no evidence that he's wrong.

Most of America doesn't understand policy, which should have been evident after the ACA debate in 2009-10, but clearly wasn't. Most of America will tolerate bad behavior from their leaders in their private lives, which ironically should have been true from Bill Clinton. Most of America isn't all that "in tune" with activist types and their pet causes, let alone the in's and out's of why they feel that way. Most of America just goes with gut reactions and feelings in their politics, and basically votes on a brand of identity politics that is way more crass and basic than most liberals would like to admit. They don't want their taxes raised, they're not sure they really want the government to do a whole lot, they just want their way of life to be preserved, and their economic well-being to be kept. The debates of Washington, Twitter, college campuses, and political organization meetings mean nothing to them. You might be able to get them to say they don't approve of something Trump said in a poll question, but that's not what's driving their votes in the end. All the high minded political debates just don't really matter.

It's 2016- and nothing matters.