The Media’s Election Coverage Is Not A Game, But It’s Being Treated Like One

With just days left until the polls close and we determine the winners of the 2024 Election, media coverage isn’t doing deep dives on the issues, the consequences, or the records of the two candidates at the top of the ticket. We’re not getting breakdowns of what Congress — the true governing power in Washington — has done with the last two years or looks likely to do with the next two. And as we come down to the wire and prominent political actors take sides — including over a dozen former Trump Administration officials who say that their ex-boss is a threat to the Constitutional order — all of our attention is turned towards the simple math of winning and losing, as if there are no real consequences for who sits in the Oval Office or runs the House and Senate.

But don’t let the coverage fool you: This election is not a game.

At the top of the ticket, where all the noise and focus has gone, the impact of choosing between Kamala Harris or Donald Trump is an existential crisis for American democracy. On one side, we have someone who has served in government and by popular will her whole career, someone who has acted as an officer of the rule of law against individuals and corporations, and who has interrogated some of the most powerful people in our system on the consequences of their work and their intentions for the American people. On the other is a man who has already led a violent assault on Congress in an attempt to install himself as dictator, who has violated and exploited laws whenever it was in his personal best interests, and who suppressed essential information and held lifesaving materials hostage during a once-in-a-century health crisis while hawking snake oil “cures” from behind the White House podium.

Looking forward, Harris is likely to continue and expand on what we have liked about the Biden Administration — the major initiatives and rules to protect consumers, the acceleration of the energy transition, further oversight of polluters, and the faithful enforcement of the law without fear or favor — and to change what we haven’t approved of. She can be moved on topics like Gaza, criminal justice, equity and inclusion, and anti-corruption initiatives because she will be a president beholden to the will of the people. Trump, on the other hand, will dismantle the slim protections of the Constitution, threaten or arrest political opponents, use the law to suppress dissent, implement the horrific and unpopular objectives laid out in Project 2025, and expand the once-limited presidency into full-blown monarchy.

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And Congress, which will be the next (perhaps only) line of defense against a Trump takeover should he prevail in the Electoral College, has gotten virtually no attention at all besides a shallow take on whether Team Red or Team Blue will win. Instead of seeing the contest over control of the legislative branch that writes the rules for society, sets the limits and consequences for states, businesses, and individuals, has the ability to reform or constrain the other branches (like, say, a wayward and overpowered Supreme Court), and determines the viability of every single one of the campaign promises made by the prospective presidents, we’ve gotten scant coverage that focuses on a handful of races by the popularity or polling of a given candidate. A Democratic House and Senate would mean the possibility of transforming the country and preparing for the future; a split Congress — either a Republican-run House or Senate (or both!) — would mean gridlock, stalling, failure, and the continuation of a backwards-looking focus that tries to recreate the false nostalgia of the 20th century instead of living in the reality of the 21st.

And while there are still millions of us who have yet to vote, the failure of the press to cover elections like they are life and death hiring decisions and not a reality show where we pick figureheads has already cost us more than we can measure. More people have given into misinformation or false realities, getting wrapped up in rhetoric and the ephemeral fluff of campaign coverage instead of recognizing the seriousness and importance of our votes. While the press has moved on from Trump and Vance’s outrageous lies about Haitian immigrants, the people of Springfield still live in fear. While pundits talk about optics and polling, the slow recovery of North Carolina from Hurricane Helene is further stalled by conspiracy theories, confusion, and retributive violence. These are failures of a country that sees politics as a meaningless contest between teams and not as a fundamental debate over what it means for us to govern ourselves.

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So as the noise ratchets up, as the pundits parse polls and churn analysis, as everyone yells about winning or losing, tune out the distractions and find your focus. Because the power of our ballots comes through when we remember what this election is really about: us, and the kind of country and world we will have to live in.

Then vote.