I’ve heard the word “unprecedented” too much recently. Every news site has articles on JD Vance’s approval rate cratering to unprecedented lows, opinion pieces on why Donald Trump is an unprecedented authoritarian and columns about how Kamala Harris is an unprecedented communist.
At some point words stop having meaning.
With just over two months until Election Day, the US is gearing up for a fight between a candidate who “staged the first ever coup in America,” and one who will “terminate the United States Constitution,” according to what Trump and Harris have said about each other.
So, what’s unprecedented and what’s not? Let’s break it down:
The most blatant misuse of the word is the coverage of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania July 13. NBC called it an “unprecedented event shaking the nation’s political system,” and that it “wrote a ghastly new chapter in the story of deepening division and American political polarization,”
But this chapter isn’t new.
In the political chaos that was 1968, Robert Kennedy, a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated just over a month apart, not even five years after the assassination of Kennedy’s brother, president John F. Kennedy.
Even ignoring the 16 major assassination attempts on American presidents or presidential candidates, just seven years ago, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the third highest ranking Republican in the House, was shot at a charity baseball game.
Congressmen have brawled on the House floor. Four presidents have been killed by assassins. Despite President Joe Biden’s claim that “The idea that there’s political violence, or violence in America like this, is just unheard of,” political violence has shaped the history of America, and the attempt on Trump’s life is simply the latest example.
Unprecedented rating: 0/10
Just two weeks prior to the shooting in Pennsylvania, the first presidential debate took place June 27. In a performance called a “DEFCON One moment” by a former Democratic campaign manager, Biden stumbled through his sentences in a hoarse whisper and seemed unable to refute Trump’s barefaced lies.
Trump capitalized on Biden’s weaknesses throughout the debate, often joking about how Biden had no idea how to finish his sentences and attacking him with multiple false claims and racist remarks, such as calling him a “very bad Palestinian.”
One comparison for the poor debate was Trump and Biden’s first presidential debate on Sept. 29, 2020. Labeled the worst presidential debate in history at the time by Forbes, the two old men bickered like old golfing rivals on the green, much like they did this June.
Biden’s debate performance was much like the first ever televised presidential debate in 1960 between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Nixon appeared on TV unshaven, sweaty and unable to make it through his sentences without being tripped up. Much like Biden, public opinion shifted away from Nixon in the days following the debate, with polls swinging 3% in favor of Kennedy.
Unprecedented rating: 2/10
Following his debate with Trump, Biden became the first president to end his campaign for re-election after having already secured enough delegates to win the nomination. The timing of Biden’s July 21 exit was undoubtedly new, with no presidential nominee ever dropping out of the race so close to election day.
There were two reasons for the exit: donors refused to support Biden, with upwards of $90 million being withheld if he did not step down, and internal pressure from key Democrats like former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who privately pressured Biden to end his campaign, according to NBC.
His exit can be likened to Lyndon B. Johnson who, like Biden, made a surprise announcement that he would end his 1968 campaign for re-election. His decision to step down was primarily due to his health concerns, having suffered a heart attack earlier in his life.
However, Biden’s decision to step down was primarily due to his low approval rating and belief it would harm his party to remain in the election.
Of everything that has been called unprecedented, this is the most deserving. It’s a low bar though.
Unprecedented rating: 5/10
It is easy to assume in times of uncertainty that everything is unprecedented. However, everyone in the past has thought the same way about events we now gloss over in history class.
Whenever you’re panicked about the slippery slope that we seem to be hurtling down, just remember that one day this period of history will be just another boring DBQ on the APUSH exam.