Thread by @JYSexton

When a president doesn't create multiple crises or scandals a day the pundits will go ahead and try and create their own scandals in the absence.

Remember this when piecing together the reasons the former president was able to gain traction and win office.

The political ecosystem is largely an entertainment complex that runs on scandal, spectacle, insider/specialized knowledge commodified, and profit off palace intrigue.

It's a TV show, a brand, a franchise, and it will find a way to produce.

Reagan gifted the political media ready-made segments with pomp, circumstance, and network-friendly optics.

Trump gifted them breathless segments and inches on his corruption, offensiveness, cruelty, and continual crisis. When they told you he was good for business they meant it

And any vacuum created by a largely scandal-free, spectacle-deficient presidency, in this environment, will be filled by bad-faith grifters peddling conspiracy theories, manufactured controversies, and outrageous behavior.

This is where Trump gained purchase during Obama.

The answer is to reject this poisonous political environment, calibrate profitability to socially beneficial endeavors, and move beyond spectacle and tabloid gossip. That’s a massive shift though and requires personal choice, regulation, and industry-wide changes.

The question, and this is one of the great existential questions of the moment, is whether we want to watch a TV show about political intrigue or if we want to get down to the actual work of addressing looming crises and solving cruel inequalities.

The answer should be clear.