A Very Lindy Election

The Presidential Election is just a few weeks away. We’ve gone through the whole campaign season, but does it even feel like an election year? It doesn’t to me. This is one of the strangest elections I’ve witnessed. And I’m not the only one who noticed this. A lot of people are saying the same thing.

The usual excuse is that we’ve been watching Trump for nearly ten years. We know him. Inside and out. He hasn’t changed. He’s not interesting anymore. And then there’s Kamala who has no charisma, no spark. It sounds like a reasonable explanation, but I’m not buying it. We’ve had boring candidates before. Familiar faces. Forgettable campaigns. And yet, this feels different. Something else is happening here. Something bigger than just Trump’s predictability or Kamala’s flatness.

We’re going back to pre-1945 American politics. Even to Ancient Rome. We’re leaving the long 20th century bubble of grand unity and idealism. Think Obama’s speeches on unity, Reagan’s Morning in America, or George W. Bush’s Compassionate Conservatism. These were campaigns built around grand themes that aimed to inspire and unite the entire country. But that’s all gone now.

We are returning to what elections have always been about.

I call it Lindy Shock

Lindy Shock

Lindy Shock is when the transition to an old norm hits abruptly, creating a jarring, almost disorienting experience. It’s not that things were never this way before, but that we’ve grown so accustomed to a modern mode that returning to the past feels surreal.

This is what is happening to the 2024 election. Instead of seeking a broad, unifying message, candidates today are laser-focused on piecing together narrow coalitions to scrape by with 51% of the vote. This changes how elections feel.

Back to Ancient Rome

Just take a look at the events of the 2024 election so far. A lot has happened, but none of it looks familiar to modern American politics. These are things that happen in other countries. Not here. But this is the new normal.

• Both Candidates in a race to hand out bribes to specific groups

• Assassinations attempts on Trump

• Shadowy Back Room deals to remove Biden and nominate Kamala

• Charging Trump with Felonies During Election Year

• The Pentagon and State Department Managing Multiple Wars in the Background

• Candidates Appearing on Specific Podcasts with Targeted Fandoms

• The World’s Richest Man Aggressively Backing One Candidate

• Billionaires on Both Sides Battling it Out for their Candidate

It’s a crazy list. But all very normal, historically speaking.

What’s happening is society is fractured. Polarized. No one’s aiming for the whole country anymore. The grand vision is gone. Now, it’s all micro-targeting, slicing up the electorate into neat little pieces. Politicians don’t talk to Americans, they talk to voting blocs.

It’s a transactional and ancient type of politics. But we’ve been here before. Think of Tammany Hall, New York. Deals for votes. Jobs for loyalty. Politicians courting immigrant communities, offering protection, a few favors in exchange for power. Julius Caesar didn’t sell a grand vision. He bought loyalty with tangible benefits like debt relief, land reforms and grain.

And the more this becomes about assembling narrow coalitions, the more it feels like the elites are running the whole show.

If we consider America is becoming more of a “normal” country, our elections seem to be following suit. The post-1945 period, defined by American exceptionalism—economic dominance, unmatched military power, and global democratic leadership—was an anomaly. Now, as the country faces more competition and internal fragmentation, our elections are beginning to resemble the transactional, coalition-building politics seen in other democracies.

I believe this is a permanent shift. Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis are the two frontrunners in 2028. They both pride themselves in uniting their specific faction of Americans. They are not unity candidates. They are looking for the 51% only to win.

In This Newsletter

1) Bribing The Regular Voter is Back: Bribing voters disappeared from American presidential elections after 1945, but it’s made a comeback in 2024 through a wave of targeted handouts. Candidates aren’t offering broad visions anymore; they’re promising specific benefits to narrow groups, buying support one bloc at a time.

2) How Can Regular Voters Leverage the Transactional Nature of this New Political Environment? We’re no longer in a time when elections are about broad, national unity. The political game is fragmented, with each candidate scrambling to secure a narrow slice of the electorate. This is how you can position yourself to gain the most from the new transactional nature of American politics.

Bribing Voters is Lindy

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