{"id":33147,"date":"2025-07-04T13:46:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T13:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=33147"},"modified":"2025-07-04T13:46:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T13:46:52","slug":"the-us-lefts-glaring-attention-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=33147","title":{"rendered":"The US left\u2019s glaring attention deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This article is an on-site version of our Swamp Notes newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here<\/a> to get the newsletter delivered every Monday and Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here<\/a>, or explore<\/a> all FT newsletters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

First of all, happy July 4 to American Swampians \u2014 and to British readers too. As a Brit living in the US, I feel it is a day to be celebrated. The American Revolution was also a transatlantic civil war in which some of my English heroes, notably Thomas Paine, rallied to the colonies. That is to say \u2014 and contrary to what one or two American friends suppose \u2014 July 4 is not an awkward day, let alone a mournful one for me. <\/p>\n

Had I been alive in the late 18th century, I fondly imagine siding with the rebels against the Hanoverian redcoats and their Hessian mercenaries. Which brings us to now. Donald Trump is abusing his power with an abandon rarely witnessed since George III. This poses almost as large a challenge to liberal democracy-valuing Americans today as the tyranny of the crown did 249 years ago. \u201cOur repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury,\u201d says the Declaration of Independence. \u201cA Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry Swampians, I\u2019m not pledging my sacred honour to a revolutionary cause. But it is fair to say that America is heading in a lethal direction and nobody seems able to stop it. To put it mildly, Trump\u2019s opponents lack a Thomas Jefferson. There is no simple fix to the quandary facing anti-Trump America. But it is worth pointing out a few red herrings. <\/p>\n

Chief of these is the idea that Democrats should create a liberal version of Joe Rogan. The top-down donor-driven quest to replicate Rogan or any other figure from the manosphere sounds about as authentic as Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s attempt to repackage himself as a human \u2014 sorry, hyper-masculine male. Zuckerberg received deserved mockery early this year for celebrating masculinity on The Joe Rogan Experience where he talked at length about his muscle-building regimen, how he likes to butcher meat he has hunted and so on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sporting his supposedly tough guy, new hairstyle (which should henceforth be known as a Palo Alto mullet) and a ghetto-gold neck chain, Zuckerberg was almost begging to be lampooned. The same goes for the liberal donors who think they can find their magic bullet on ChatGPT. <\/p>\n

One of the most salient features of today\u2019s politics is that voters crave authenticity. In theory, authenticity is organic. Trump did not create Rogan or other \u201cbrocasters\u201d; he exploited their attention. The real lesson from Rogan et al is that their fans aren\u2019t that keen on politics. Many of the brocasters are second-rate comedians and ex-sports commentators whose ability to talk ceaselessly became their m\u00e9tier. Banal though they are \u2014 and to my ears stupefyingly low-information \u2014 they have cornered some of today\u2019s zeitgeist. Democrats seem to be outside the zeitgeist altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An exception to this is Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Muslim-American who last week upended the Democratic establishment <\/a>by defeating Andrew Cuomo to win the New York mayoral primary. Though there are reasons to be sceptical of Mamdani\u2019s policies, such as a rent freeze and publicly run grocery stores, he knows how to get attention. That means (a) talking about issues of deep concern to voters, notably affordability and economic unfairness, and (b) doing so in an authentic way. Mamdani is the last person the Democratic donor class would have ordered. Yet he is giving everyone a lesson in how you win campaigns in an attention deficit-disordered society. The monarch of voter attention, of course, is Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wise people should have deep misgivings about whether TikTok-savvy politician-influencers are equipped to govern. The tools of winning and retaining attention are so at odds with the end of governing effectively that I almost hesitated to write this note. We just have to hope America has hidden leaders-in-waiting with sufficient dexterity to win campaigns in today\u2019s fragmented media environment then somehow ignore its unending intrusiveness. Even in the best of circumstances, governing well requires strategic purpose, which can only come with detachment. Either way, I wish my American friends a happy and historically imaginative July 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am turning this week to my friend David Rothkopf, a former Clinton official, CEO of TRG Media, and widely read columnist, for this week\u2019s response. David, what should be the meaning of this July 4? What facts would you submit to \u201ca candid world<\/a>\u201d?<\/p>\n

Recommended reading<\/h2>\n