Dear Gossips,    

For decades, maybe longer, American politics has been described as theatre. It is still theatre, but by half. Theatrical performers are trained artists and there was a trained professional on stage last night at the presidential debate, but on the other side of the stage, it was less theatre than it was reality television featuring the most notorious star in reality TV history. 

 

Rational viewers would have seen that there was a clear winner in this contest. We watched a trained candidate call out an undisciplined one who only has “concepts of a plan” but no real strategy to lead. A trained candidate who has been working hard was able to point out, quite effectively, that her opponent is compromised, uncoordinated, and incompetent. 

 

But … and I don’t mean to bring the mood down… it makes me crazy that she has to, and will continue to have to, put in that kind of effort. As she herself has said, this is an “unserious man” who still, even after last night, has a very good chance of getting his old job back. And that’s why she, as we have been hearing over the last few days, has been studying, practising, reviewing, revising, reading, and generally just getting sh-t done. So even though the stakes here are higher than they’ve ever been, even though this is the most extraordinary of competitions, the joint job interview that was broadcast on television last night was upsettingly familiar. Because how many f-cking times has a qualified and prepared – maybe even overprepared – woman and/or person of colour had to put in that kind of time just to have the opportunity to go up against a f-cking loser … just to be considered! 

 

This is why persistence is practically coded into our DNA at this point. And here’s where I got emotional last night – not during the debate but afterwards at her rally, when Vice President Kamala Harris said last night, “Hard work is good work”. She did the work. But she and her advisors all know, she has to work harder, she’ll always have to work harder. So it was not an accident, on multiple levels, and we’ll get to some of the other gossipy ones later, why Taylor Swift’s “The Man” was played as she exited. Note where the song is cued when they start it: 

 

“I’m so sick of running as fast I can 

Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man”

She’s sick of it. We’re sick of it. But she probably still got up earlier than he did this morning and will do more in 15 minutes than he’ll do for the whole day just to break even. It’s something so many of us understand… all too well. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey