Scandal Is Dead: How “Alpha Politics” Killed the Juiciest Political Weapon
There was a time when one good scandal could end a political career. That time is dead. And politicians - especially the ones who’ve figured it out - are dancing on its grave.
I. Remember When Scandals Actually Mattered?
Once upon a time, scandal was the political death penalty.
You got busted sending wildly inappropriate messages to someone underage? Get lost. (RIP, Mark Foley, 2006.)
It wasn’t a question of if you had to resign - it was when and how ashamed you looked while doing it.
But then something changed.
Today, the scandal barely leaves a scratch. Politicians waltz through it like a minor inconvenience, like a bad Yelp review or a parking ticket. And it’s not just one side of the aisle - it’s both.
Donald Trump? Impeached twice, sexual misconduct allegations, an actual coup attempt - and still leading in the polls.
Bill Clinton? Got impeached over lying about an affair, survived, and left office with approval ratings most presidents would kill for.
Brett Kavanaugh? Turned sexual assault allegations into a righteous rage-fest and landed on the Supreme Court.
If there’s one thing these guys figured out, it’s that scandal only kills you if you let it.
So what happened? How did we go from a world where one wrong move could destroy you to one where politicians can (apparently) do anything and be totally fine?
Well, let me introduce you to...
II. The “Brazen It Out” Theory: How Scandal Stopped Working
For most of American history, scandal followed a very clear three-step process:
A politician screws up - affair, bribery, weird bathroom incident, whatever.
The media freaks out, the public gets mad, and everyone calls for their resignation.
The politician tearfully resigns, releases a sad statement, and disappears forever.
That was the deal. That was how things worked.
But then Clinton - and later, Trump - showed us a fourth option:
4. Just... don’t leave.
And it keeps working.
The difference?
Scandal survivors treated it like a fight. Scandal casualties treated it like a confession.
III. Alpha Politics: When Weakness Became the Only Unforgivable Sin
Here’s the real kicker: It’s not that scandals don’t matter. It’s that acting weak matters more.
Welcome to Alpha Politics.
Trump understands this better than anyone.
Never apologize, never admit fault.
Make it about “them,” not you. (Deep State, Fake News, Radical Left, whatever fits.)
Act like the scandal makes you stronger, not weaker.
Never admit defeat.
Doesn’t matter what you did - if you turn it into a war, you win.
This is why…
Trump got caught on tape bragging about sexual assault and somehow gained supporters.
Brett Kavanaugh turned a Supreme Court confirmation hearing into a rage-fueled cultural war and got rewarded with a lifetime appointment.
Meanwhile, people like Gary Hart, Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, and John Edwards followed the old rules - apologizing, resigning, retreating. And guess what? They’re gone.
IV. The Death of Universal Outrage (And the Birth of Tribalism)
But today? Scandals don’t exist in a single reality. They exist in two separate worlds:
On Fox News, Trump scandals are deep state hoaxes.
On MSNBC, every Republican is a corrupt fascist.
On Twitter, people are just screaming into the void.
There is no longer a single national “This Is Bad” moment. There’s only partisan outrage, which means scandals only matter if your own side turns on you.
So if that’s the new world, what does that mean for the future?
V. Why Donald Trump Had to Say He Won in 2020
Now it all makes sense.
Trump couldn’t admit defeat in 2020 because admitting defeat equals weakness. And in Alpha Politics, weakness is the only unforgivable sin.
If a politician looks weak, they lose control of the narrative. If they lose the narrative, they lose their base. And once that base starts slipping, any chance of a comeback is dead.
From Trump’s perspective, conceding was never an option. Not just because of ego (though, let’s be real, that’s part of it), but because admitting loss meant handing his enemies a win. It meant closing the door on turning the election into a battle—a fight that he could use to keep his supporters enraged, engaged, and ready for the next round.
Does he actually believe he won? Probably not. But the truth doesn’t matter here. What mattered was keeping the fight alive. And the only way to do that was to say—again and again—that he never really lost.
Because in Alpha Politics, the second you admit defeat, the war is over. And Trump? He wasn’t about to surrender.
VI. Is There Any Scandal Big Enough to Actually Matter?
If Trump literally leading an insurrection didn’t end his career, what would?
Getting caught on tape admitting to a crime? (Nope, already happened.)
A corruption scandal? (Nope, we’re numb to it.)
Something even worse? (We’ve said that before.)
At this point, the only real scandal that can destroy a politician is betraying their own party.
Trump could commit more crimes and still be fine. But if he started pushing gun control? Game over…probably?
So is scandal dead forever? Maybe not. But it’s definitely on life support.
Until then, the rule stands:
It’s not about the scandal. It’s about the fight. And if you fight hard enough, you survive.
What are your thoughts? What are the positives and negatives to the death of the scandal? Let me know in the comments below.
