As someone who makes a living in politics, I’m often entertained by or interested in events many consider boring or irrelevant. I do my best to maintain perspective — looking beyond polls and focus groups, talking to neighbors, listening to non-political friends. And I realized that not a single individual person outside the political class mentioned anything — not one word — about the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
I couldn’t help but think of the age-old question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? If an impeachment trial fails in the Senate and no one is there to see it, does it really even matter?
The Trump candidacy and presidency has been a rating bonanza for television news. Not so much for the Nancy Pelosi-Adam Schiff trial.
According to Adweek, just under eight million viewers tuned in for day three of the Senate trial coverage, down 12% from day two and a whopping 29% from day one. Maybe so few watched because so many are busy working in the Trump economy. Among those who did watch, Fox News topped the ratings. I think it’s safe to assume that few among the Fox audience actually flipped on the president.
Even the most partisan Democrats are ready to cancel the show. Former 2008 and 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaigns chief strategist David Axelrod, now a CNN political analyst, shared in a recent CNN interview what he called a “chilling” experience.
“I was in a focus group this morning for the Institute of Politics here at the University of Chicago with some Democratic voters, and it was chilling to hear them talk about this,” Axelrod said. “Because impeachment didn’t come up, no one volunteered it, for 80 minutes into the focus group, and we’re right in the middle of the trial.”
Unlike the Clinton impeachment trial, the Schiff show offers little to capture the county’s attention. No yellow stripes on the chief justice’s robe, no sex scandal, no DNA evidence. Just Adam Schiff talking … and talking … and talking. Let’s face it. Politics is performance art, the stage is television — and this show is old. It has nothing new. Yes, even the most political among us find it quite boring.
No matter your opinion of Donald J. Trump, you have to give him this — he is not boring. Even before Mr. Trump rode the golden escalator into packed stadiums across the country, more than 20 million tuned in to watch non-political Trump in season one of “The Apprentice.”
By moving to impeach the president, Pelosi and Schiff took on the greatest political showman in the history of the game, and no one showed up to watch. Little energizes President Trump more than getting bigger ratings than the competition. And in 2020, ratings equal votes at the ballot box.
And the substance? Does it really matter? No one is watching and only the political class cares.
Jason Johnson is owner of J2 Strategies in Austin, Texas and is the former 2016 presidential campaign chief strategist for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). You can follow him @JasonSJohnson.