Why Have Americans Grown Impervious to Political Scandal?

In AP U.S. History, we are learning about the late 1700s, early 1800s, and the Jacksonian age of America. One of the things that starkly stands out about these periods is the level of sensitivity that the public used to hold toward political scandals. During the election of 1824, the presidential candidates John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, and Henry Clay all fell under the necessary amount of electoral votes to win the nomination. As a result, the House of Representatives made the final decision. Jackson had won the popular vote and the most electoral votes, but Clay, knowing he had little chance of being elected, campaigned for Adams since Adams was more politically aligned with him than Jackson was. The House eventually chose Adams due to Clay’s campaigning, and in return, Adams named Clay to be his Secretary of State—the most lauded cabinet position at the time. After word about this exchange of favors got out, the people were outraged—Clay’s political career was essentially over, and Adams’ reputation was marred for good. 

However, America has drastically changed since that period. Here in 2024, we have become so impervious to scandal that a man with 34 felonies and a plethora of other scandals has been elected president for his second term. President-elect Donald Trump’s first action following his recent nomination was to give high-ranking cabinet positions to his most loyal followers and yes-men—the very thing that John Quincy Adams did to ruin his reputation. Only this time, there were no repercussions. The most apt way to quantify the lack of sensitivity that 2024 America has concerning political scandal is by using a quote Trump himself said while on his campaign trail in 2016 prior to his first presidential term: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters.” Eight years later, this comment has continued to disturbingly ring true.

While the scandal surrounding Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and John Quincy Adams is a relevant example we can refer to, this change involving the permissiveness of political scandal is extremely new. In 1998, then-president Bill Clinton was caught having a sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky via discovery of leaked phone conversations. Trump’s array of scandals makes this historic one look practically trivial. However, unlike Trump, Clinton’s scandal resulted in his impeachment and ruined his reputation. To understand this recent change among the American people, we need to investigate the causes.

One way we can view this, specifically regarding Trump’s presidency, is the influence of the media, especially social media. Social media platforms run on likes, clicks, and comments. Therefore, their algorithms tend to push whatever content will get the greatest reaction from the viewer, which tends to involve outrageous jokes or opinions. At first, the vast majority of people simply laugh at these posts and move on, perceiving them as entertainment. However, people eventually grow used to it. These jokes, comments, and content, such as polarizing and extreme jokes and podcast clips, are embedded into people’s brains, and they begin to either believe them or rationalize the clearly false ones. This is exactly what occurred with Trump. In 2004, Trump began filming The Apprentice, his reality game show where he played himself. In the show, contestants compete to become Trump’s apprentice and learn from him. Trump’s character was performative, authoritative, and visible through his coinage of the phrase “You’re Fired!” as well as his controlling and larger-than-life effect throughout the show.

Trump used his formulated persona to his advantage while campaigning across the country in the 2016 presidential election. He cares about garnering fans and high ratings just as much as people enjoy receiving likes on social media. Everyone would watch the news, anticipating what outrageous comment Trump would say next. Who would he offend? Who would he rile up? It became a sort of game, and he used this to his advantage. Trump once said to his advisors that “there’s no bad press unless you’re a pedophile,” and he milked this idea for all it was worth through his simultaneously entertaining and outlandish comments and actions. These remarks became ingrained in the heads of loyal followers, and they began to truly believe what he said and identify with his behavior and actions. This created a sense of acceptance and even encouragement. 

On top of the impact of social media and its curated content for the purpose of reaction and controversy, the divisiveness of modern America has played a major role as well. Back in the Jacksonian Age, there wasn’t the level of polarity that we see today. People formed new political parties, and these parties cyclically collapsed and rose. However, we are now enclosed in our two bubbles of Democrats and Republicans. When it comes to Trump, voters who remained steadfastly loyal to him through everything he’s said and done are not likely to switch sides. Democratic voters who set themselves firmly against Trump and his scandalous tendencies are also unlikely to switch sides. Furthermore, University of Houston Professor of Political Science Brandon Rottinghaus wrote, “If a politician gets caught in a scandal, that politician can claim the other side is out to get them politically, and your base will still like you, despite the scandal.” Trump has been caught in scandal countless times and has argued that the left is “after [him].” He has branded himself as a figure who stands against tyranny and corruption in order to get out of trouble, scot-free. This easy escape for Trump through manipulating his supporters makes something as extreme as 34 felony counts, at the very least, appear benign, and, as a study conducted by Barnard professor Michael G. Miller found, possibly even a spark for heavier donation and support.

While Trump may be the most glaring example of the issue at hand, he is not the only one. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been at the center of controversy and scandal since he took office in 2022. It was recently discovered that Adams committed wire fraud and had been accepting bribes for nearly a decade from Turkish citizens and government officials. However, it has been two months since these revelations, and Adams is still sitting, unbothered, in the mayoral office. At any other point in history, this would’ve been more than enough to boot Adams from politics as a whole.

Rather than sitting, stunned, when realizing that we, in fact, elected a president who was twice impeached and paid hush money to a porn star, we should instead investigate how this may have happened and where we went wrong. The issue lies mostly within ourselves, with a little push from media companies and scandalous politicians. Without a polarized country filled with suggestible and close-minded voters to push ideas and disinformation to, Trump would never have gained or maintained support at the level he has been able to. As someone who will be eligible to vote for our next president, it is important to me that we educate each other on the history of political scandals in order to set a precedent on how we should approach this issue in the future. We need to be well-informed on national-level politics and take classes that expand on that knowledge. These will help us maintain an open mind by combatting the temptation to simply “vote for our side” and overlook possibly explosive scandals.