One feature of our political era is that clever, “epic,” “mic drop” moments have been completely played out. Today, if you get the perfect clapback, if you draw out someone’s hypocrisy perfectly, if you make the perfect quip, it doesn’t land like it did 10 or 20 years ago. <1/8>

These 2000s-style moments — the West Wing pilot speech on evangelical hypocrisy, the Newsroom pilot speech on faux American exceptionalism, the Jon Stewart anti-Crossfire rant, the Keith Olbermann-style epic monologue — don’t resonate in 2019. <2/8>

A mix of a few things caused this: the internet just bombarding us with epic viral video after epic viral video, Stewart/Colbert turning all of comedy into endless streams of “look at this hypocrite” mashup videos, and Trump just buffaloing through all criticism. <3/8>

In short, we’re completely burned out on “epic” — and cleverness means nothing with Trump in the White House. As a result, the 2020 candidates who have attempted epic Trump takedowns or clever twists on rhetoric — Gillibrand, Harris, DeBlasio — haven’t broken through. <4/8>

If this old style doesn’t work, what then works in this new era? It seems that what works now is the opposite of epic, momentous cleverness — what works is straight-shooting, deep & simple, repetitive statements & acts of sincere belief, demonstrated over the long haul. <5/8>

This style — just slowly, calmly, consistently showing what you believe — is the only way to break through in this skeptical, frenetic, burned-out age. And with this style, you can’t break through in one epic moment — you have to build up trust inch by inch. <6/8>

That’s why I think folks like Bernie and Warren have broke through. While everyone’s doing shallow “epic” Trump reactions, Bernie’s just trodding along repeating his consistent, long-haul values; and Warren’s just trodding along, plan by plan, laying out a positive vision. <7/8>

Out of power, we perfected reaction into an art and ran it into the ground. And as some wring the last few clicks out of reaction, others, fortunately, are trading reaction for action, taking up the long, hard—but more enlivening—work of being sincere first movers again. <8/8>