Trump Has One Big Advantage

This week, Donald Trump clinched Iowa, now he’s barreling towards a nomination showdown with Joe Biden. But this Presidential Election? It's kind of a snooze-fest. The usual electoral electricity isn’t there. This year, it's just a hard slog to the most powerful job on Earth.

It's a procedural grind, not a historic battle. The nation is fatigued by political drama and is ready to hit fast-forward to Election Day. Where's the excitement? There is a few reasons why no one is looking forward to the next 8 months.

1) We Know the Candidates. We know Trump. He’s been a celebrity for 40 years. This is his 3rd time running for President. Yeah, he’s still good with a one-liner on the campaign trail. The man has mastered the “it’s a bit but I also really believe what I’m saying” type of speech that makes him very entertaining. He still has his classic ability for us to feel his pain in contrast to every other politician’s attempt for him to feel our pain. But we know who he is. There's no mystery, no intrigue. Just two known quantities on a stage we've seen before.

2) They’re Old. Watching two octogenarians grapple for the world's top job is sad. They may die at any time. It’s a serious issue. Besides, America is a nation of the future and moving forward. This race is a contrast to the usual forward-looking and optimistic vibe you expect from America, where the focus is typically on the future, not on the end.

3) Trump Was Already President. In 2016, there was real uncertainty about what kind of president Trump would be. Many Democrats were scared, fearing a fascist takeover. Trump was the first true outsider to become President of the United States. But in the end, his presidency wasn't much different from other conservative ones. We've seen this play before. Besides, America's strong system and wealth remain constant, regardless of the president. The private sector impacts our lives more than the government does. In many other countries, the president's identity matters a more. That's why I wrote about implementing direct democracy. 

4) Being into Politics too Much is Gross. Politics has become oddly pervasive and unappealing. It's everywhere in mainstream culture, to the point of being overwhelming and unsightly. It's taken over aspects of culture where it doesn't belong, spoiling them. There's a certain crudeness to it now. Being really into politics almost feels like a lowbrow pursuit, something for people without better things to do or focus on. It's just off-putting.

The Lindy Angle

There is one aspect of this election that catches my attention. It's a 'Lindy' angle that seems to be overlooked by everyone.

We're experiencing a collective forgetfulness about the Covid Epidemic, but this isn't a new phenomenon. It's happened after every pandemic. This forgotten aspect is odd, and it's likely to have an impact on this election.

Covid Was Bad

Covid was a major crisis. It played a big role in Trump's loss in 2020. The virus was a disaster, contributing to over a million American deaths. Our society came to a halt, with schools closed for over a year. If it were a war, we'd have endless memorials, like we do for 9/11, which saw around 3,000 deaths. Or a natural disaster that would be written about for decades. But here's the odd part.

Do you actively remember Covid? Sure, you might recall specific details when prompted, but it's not something that's constantly on your mind. It's rarely brought up now. It's as if it never happened, which is strange because it certainly did.

Remember the masks? They used to be everywhere, covering faces, hiding expressions. Now, they feel almost surreal, like a distant memory from a dystopian film. It's odd how such a significant global event has become just a faint memory, leaving behind only bits and pieces of emotions and scattered images.

One advantage Donald Trump has in this election is that people don't really remember Covid. He's campaigning as if a pandemic never happened under his watch. In a typical election, Biden would constantly bring up Covid and criticize Trump's handling of it. But he can't do that now because we have mass amnesia.

We Forget Pandemics

Pandemics are very common. We have had 15 pandemics in the last 500 years and two so far in this century alone. And the latest ones have been well documented.Yet, astonishingly, we succumb to collective amnesia once the threat recedes. No art is made, no movies, no stories. Everyone just moves on.

In almost every book about pandemics you can see This.

The Spanish Flu in 1918 killed tens of millions around the world. In the US it killed around 675,000 people. That’s the equivalent to 2.5 million Americans dead today. Double the amount of Covid. In "Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World" Spinney talks about the limited cultural imprint of the Spanish Flu. Unlike other historical events, it didn't result in a significant body of art, literature, or film, which contributed to its absence in the collective memory.

Every book on the Spanish Flu says the same thing:

• In the "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History" the author touches upon the collective amnesia that followed.

• "Influenza 1918: The Worst Epidemic in American History" combines historical narrative with personal stories to paint a vivid picture of the 1918 pandemic and explores why it didn't maintain a prominent place in public memory.

• "Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History" includes firsthand accounts and explores the immediate impact of the pandemic and its subsequent fading from public awareness.

The concept of mass amnesia in relation to pandemics is not limited to the post-Spanish Flu era. Here are some examples and references that discuss pandemics and mass amnesia in earlier periods:

The Black Death killed about 100,000,000 people but books discuss the same pattern.

• "The Black Death" the Black Death gradually faded from the collective memory of European societies.

• "In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made" explores the profound changes brought about by the plague and discusses the eventual fading of its direct memory.

The Plague of Justinian (541-542 AD)is one of the earliest pandemics we have on records. Still, we see the same pattern.

• “Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe" details the first recorded pandemic of bubonic plague, known as the Plague of Justinian. It delves into the historical amnesia surrounding this pandemic, which had a significant impact on the Byzantine Empire.

This is the reason we never really learn from pandemics and millions die every time there is a new flu that travels across the globe.

It’ll happen with the next one as well.

Why Do We Have Collective Memory for War and Natural Disaster But Not For Pandemics?

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