Americans are anxiously watching a famously warring duo dominate the headlines. And it’s not over the White House. Will the situation stabilize? Will those two crazy kids work it out? Or will there be another awful break?
I am, of course, talking about Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Tabloids report that two years into their marriage, Lopez and Affleck’s relationship is rocky. My Instagram and TikTok feeds are filled with stories and speculation. Anonymous accounts claim that the two are exhausted. They disagree on money and Affleck is reportedly “worn down” and “checked out,” reports say.
America is on Round 3 of an election cycle that has brought us the same characters, the same stakes, the same scandals and the same issues.
Celebrity fascinations tend to reveal more about the culture than the celebrities themselves, who are just humans muddling through the same broken world the rest of us are, but with more money and nicer boats. And it’s worth reflecting that in 2024 the endless fascination over a middle-aged, microwaved leftover of a celebrity coupling has to do more with the deja vu of our current political climate than it does with Bennifer themselves.
Right now, America is on Round 3 of an election cycle that has brought us the same characters, the same stakes, the same scandals and the same issues.
It’s Donald Trump going against Joe Biden. America is locked in a proxy war. Our headlines are once again dominated by sexual assault allegations.
And like Affleck reportedly is, we too are all a little worn down and checked out. Fewer Americans are reading the news than did in 2016. And the news has hardly changed. Outlets are still pretending like they don’t know what Trump means when he says he’s going to ban abortion. (It means, dumb-dumbs, he wants to ban abortions.) Pundits are still chiding Democrats for being out of touch and not listening to their base. For voters under 30, Trump has been on every presidential ballot since they reached voting age. It’s as if we are locked into a “Groundhog Day” nightmare scenario of our own making. It’s 2016 “2 Fast 2 Furious” and this time with 34 more criminal convictions.
But why are we here all over again? Why can’t we get out of this political ouroboros?
America is in a profound time of change and upheaval. Even before a global pandemic killed 1.1 million Americans, America itself was grappling with political movements that questioned structural racism and rape culture. Black Lives Matter and #MeToo sought to expose bias and violence inherent in systems of power and politics and seek accountability and justice. Additionally, the elections of 2018 saw a notable shift in the number of women in elected office. This rattling of our nation’s systems revealed its cracks and flaws down to the foundations. And then came the global pandemic, where Americans were forced to see firsthand the failure of our social safety net and how America runs on the unpaid labor of women, especially women of color. Plus the inadequacies of our health care system.
Over the past eight years, system after system was stripped bare and found wanting.
These brutal realities are a lot to witness and even more exhausting to live in. Americans are struggling with the rising costs of housing, rent and groceries, while our tax dollars help fund Israel’s brutal military operation in the Gaza Strip rather than badly needed social services at home. A jury just found a former president guilty of 34 felony counts, and he’s running for president again. No matter their political leanings, Americans overwhelmingly have a pessimistic view of the future. It makes sense then that we’d want a return to something that feels comfortable and safe. Or at least more comfortable and safe than whatever could come next. We’ve already witnessed an attempted coup; what’s next could be terrifying. Sure, there are other fish in the sea, but it makes fishing less fun when all you reel in are sharks. And in a time of political upheaval and systemic dissolution, it’s hard to resist the allure of nostalgia and its promise to paint everything, even the horrors of the past, in a flattering aura. But beyond nostalgia, perhaps a greater reason we are stuck in this Shein factory remake of the past eight years is that our institutions have not been able to change fast enough. Holding Trump accountable for a number of appalling crimes hasn’t stopped him from continuing to run. Having Roe as settled law didn’t stop activist Supreme Court judges from overturning it. As our society has changed and progressed, our institutions have been stuck, ill-equipped to grapple with the questions of our time — like, for example: “What do you do when a Supreme Court justice tasked with deciding a case dealing with election issues flies an election denial flag?” People will shout about norms and civility. But norms and civility haven’t been able to protect my right to health care, or the right to live for so many Black people shot and killed by the police. Change is terrifying in a country where our very foundations have been shaken. But it’s time to change. We can’t do this all over again. Like Ben Affleck, we are all too tired.
Lyz Lenz
Lyz Lenz is the author of the book "This American Ex-Wife." She lives in Iowa and writes the newsletter “Men Yell at Me.” 
