Seinfeld Inspired Our Political Parties

As it turns out, parties about nothing, sell.

Like millions of Americans, I tuned into the show, Seinfeld, when it first aired in 1989. I was a recent college graduate, and the "show about nothing" encapsulated my generation to a T. Reagan had left the White House, the squishy Bush Dynasty of "a thousand points of light," "read my lips, no new taxes," and "no child left behind" years were before me. Hair band rockers, of the Spinal Tap sexual retardation variety, were fading and the nothingness of grunge, led by Nirvana, Green Day and Oasis, were filling the airways. Yes kids, in the 1990's we still listened to our favorite bands via celestial radio stations. Back in those pre-internet days, record labels were the gatekeepers of musical content, and we repurchased our favorite music on magical compact disks that conveniently played in our cars, Walkmans, and home stereo systems.

Growing up in the shadows of the baby boomers was a bitch. The older generation sucked all the oxygen from the room and resources from government as they systematically dismantled or reimagined every cultural institution of my time. And, since they botched or overstepped their narcissistic baby boomer bounds, those of us Gen X'ers following in the shadows of their thoughtless destruction, reaped none of the benefits of boomer's "free love" and "God is dead" culture, but paid for it in the form of excess taxes, inflation and communal diseases. As the 1980's ended, 20 years of the baby boomers running "Helter Skelter" through our institutions left my generation beleaguered and numb to senseless change - change that always benefited the boomer generation to the detriment of ours.

It was a tough time for Gen X. In the 1990's boomers ran everything. Where it took the "Greatest Generation" to win the cold war, their boomer spawn did nothing to erect foreign policy guardrails and instead, "partied like it was 1999." Though, those were simpler times. In the 90's, young interns infiltrated the White House to "blow" up false images of happy marriages. Whereas today's White House toadies seek to blow up our Constitutional Republic. The greatest challenge to being a Gen X'er was the lack of agency. The numbers simply were not in our favor. Our music, movies and moods in the 90's reflected that notion. And as a result, we were ripe for embracing a comedy show about nothing because nothing was our inheritance. A generation (Gen X) without agency, retreated to nostalgia and Gnosticism.

I only watched the first couple of seasons of Seinfeld. For me, a show about nothing that pitted four main characters of unquestionable moral flexibility in meaningless situations was more like reality TV than a sitcom. So, I tuned out Seinfeld, and most other television programing of that era. Who, after all, wants to come home from work and watch a show that portrays the seeming vapidness of their day job? When I seek entertainment, I want suspended reality not actual reality.

The generation that embraced the show about nothing now embraces political parties about nothing. As we tumble towards the November elections, we Americans are offered a "binary" choice between two political parties that essentially are about nothing. Now, if one listens to the candidates and their commercials, one could get the impression that there is a chasm between the two parties. If the democrats win control, republican candidates tell us that they will make abortions legal in the 4th trimester and levonorgestrel dispensers will be placed in all boys and girls school bathrooms. If the republicans gain power, the hue and cry is that our society will descend into some dystopia version of the "Handmaid's Tale." Of course, neither is true and the political leaders know it. They know it, because they represent the parties of nothing.

How can I claim that both political parties are about nothing? Because Congress consistently maintains approval ratings below 20% yet they are "democratically" reelected at a rate in the 90 percentiles:

Congress Approval Ratings Chart Source

The 2022 mid-term elections proved this point. Going into November of '22, the electorate was beleaguered by Covid and was just coming out of government induced lockdowns and mandatory vaccination policies. Congress' approval ratings were at a dismal 22% and if there ever was going be a "throw the bums out of office" wave, 2022 had all the makings. Yet, in that mid-term election, congressional candidates were returned to office at the rate of 96%. In a land that supposedly has free and fair elections, that could only happen when both parties are truly about nothing. Moreover, and this is where Seinfeld comes in, those election results can only happen when we have a general population conditioned to embrace political parties about nothing.

The reality is, if we could strip the political parties away from their policies, about 70% (a strong democratic majority) of Americans would fundamentally agree on most policies. But agreement defuses power. Political strength comes not from unity, but from division. Ergo, each election cycle, the electorate is fed a constant stream of campaign ads warning us that this is the most important election of our lifetime. But, in the end, it is all about nothing and I predict that when the voting dust settles, after billions of campaign dollars were raised and spent, 90% of congressional representatives will be reelected.

Though I do not have a clue which presidential candidate will win, and neither do the pollsters. Most poles have Harris and Trump in a neck-to-neck race. Whichever candidate wins the White House, they will have to contend with a firmly entrenched Congress which apparent raison d'être is to maintain the status quo of nothingness. And thanks in large part to a first and best "me generation" baby boomer class that still clings to levers of power, there appears to be no real change coming down the pike until father time does what the voting population will not, and that is, remove them all from power.

The true question is, when the boomers eventually fade into memory, will Gen X, the perpetual minority generation that lived in the wake of the baby boomers, find their agency and enact the changes necessary to reverse 40 years of progressive leadership? Can a generation that embraced a show about nothing and continues to vote for political parties about nothing do something? I do not know, but as someone who makes his living producing future business analytical models, the odds do not look good. Although the court is out on whether the subsequent generations known as millennials and Gen Z have any agency in the political process, they both at least have strong opinions. And that is one step up from the collective psyche of Gen X.

That is what a lifetime of boomer conditioning has done. For in the end, being a Gen X’er is like being a Minnesota Vikings fan. You watch the election season unfold with some early victories that give you hope. As you approach mid-season, pundits begin raising your hopes with talk of a potential presidential win. Then some high paid elite drops an effective meme, or your candidate blows a metaphorical "Achilles tendon" and your season descends into nothingness. And, instead of looking at the internal campaign shortcomings of individual player performance and coaching staff miscues, the team you supported blames you, the fans, because you didn't vote hard enough.

When it all goes to hell, and our internet-based society descends into a Department of Truth autocracy, at least I can pull out my ‘90s mix tape, and listen to my generation tell it like it is:

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you
And by now, you should've somehow realised what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now

And backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before, but you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

-Wonderwall by Oasis, 1995