RON HART: The Great American Political Circus, Now With Extra Clowns

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RON HART: The Great American Political Circus, Now With Extra Clowns

Ladies, gentlemen, and the increasingly large number of people who identify as “exhausted,” welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth: The United States of America, where the political process has evolved from a system of checks and balances into a high-stakes reality show that determines which party controls our nuclear weapons.

Democrats now must bow to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which is the rising communist wing of the party. And communism is like veganism: Both are fine unless you like food.

American politics has reached a level of sophistication previously reserved for middle-school cafeteria arguments and Twitter (sorry, X) quote-tweets. The two major parties, those ancient and venerable institutions, have long since abandoned the quaint notion of governing in favor of a perpetual performative theater of the absurd. (RELATED: Group Of GOP Senators Said They Would Force Vote To Delay Recess Over SAVE Act. What Gives?)

Consider the current landscape. One side insists the country is months from fascist dictatorship, while the other insists it is months from socialist collapse.

The Democrats’ de facto leaders are ex-bartender Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and a Muslim Socialist/Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani. Showing that he can be reasonable, Mamdani has stopped all flights into buildings in New York until the midterms.

Mamdani has learned a lot as a mayor, yet he was shocked to find out that he cannot invade Israel. In NYC, Tunnels to Towers is no longer a charity; it’s a plan for his crowd.

Thought leaders of the Dems now are Hasan Piker, Abdul el-Sayed, Rashida Talib, Ilhan Omar, Abraham Hamada, and Yassamin Ansari. They sound more like 1980s Bond villains than public servants.

The DSA nut jobs are gearing up to come after our homes, our rights and freedoms, and our money. It feels like a Zombie Apocalypse is threatening our way of life. Abdul el-Sayed, AOC, and Mamdani would identify as Zombie Community Organizers. (RELATED: Democratic US Senate Nominee Abdul El-Sayed Claims ‘Toxic Masculinity’ At Heart Of Football)

We are so weirdly split. The good or bad news is that most of the actual work of government is done by career bureaucrats who have perfected the art of looking busy while waiting for the next administration to reverse everything the previous one did.

Campaigns have become pure theater. Candidates no longer run on platforms; they run on vibes, memes, and the ability to look presidential while saying things that would get a regular person fired from an Applebee’s.

The media ecosystem has helpfully divided itself into two parallel universes. In Universe A, every development confirms the impending doom of democracy. In Universe B, every development confirms the impending doom of freedom. Citizens are encouraged to pick a universe and never leave it, because leaving might require the uncomfortable realization that both sides are staffed by ambitious people who would sell their own grandmothers for a better poll number.

Congress, that august body, continues its proud tradition of accomplishing nothing. They fight DOGE and presidential nominations. Gridlock is no longer a bug in the system; it is the entire operating system.

Meanwhile, the American public has developed a sophisticated coping mechanism: ironic detachment mixed with low-grade panic. In my columns, I mock this absurdity while quietly worrying that the absurdity might happen before they are published.

Two years ago, I joked that I don’t mind men playing in women’s sports, as long as I could bet on them. And now here we are.

Every election is billed as the most important of our lifetimes — until the next one arrives. Every crisis is existential, until a newer, shinier existential crisis replaces it. The political class continues to treat the public like an audience that must be constantly entertained, terrified, or both, because a calm, rational electorate would be far less useful for fundraising.

Satire is supposed to exaggerate reality to reveal its absurdity. The problem in 2026 is that reality keeps racing ahead of us satirists. Write a column mocking the extremes, and by the time it is published, some elected official has already said something even more extreme on live television while holding a foam finger.

I wonder if fame-driven Anthony Fauci would like to appear on Celebrity Jeopardy? He’d plead the Fifth to every question. (RELATED: ‘This Is All Data Free’: Fauci’s Texts Reveal Concerns About COVID Vaccines And Miscarriages)

Still, there is a certain comfort in the chaos. The republic has survived far worse than bad-faith cable news and performative tweets. It survived a civil war, two world wars, the disco era, the invention of the participation trophy and numerous boy bands. It can probably survive another round of politicians pretending that the other party is uniquely evil while both parties quietly agree that raising money is the real national pastime.

So raise a glass (with a reusable metal straw, depending on your political affiliation) to the great American experiment. It remains messy, loud, self-important, and occasionally functional. The clowns may have taken over the circus, but the tent is still standing. As soon as they fix the Reflecting Pool in D.C., they will form a subcommittee to fix the tent.

A libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, Ron does commentary on radio and TV. He can be contacted at [email protected] or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.