“Presfluencer” is a term I made up as a joke in conversation with a friend about politics.
The term refers to the seemingly American phenomenon in which modern political figures are seen more as influencers than they are public servants, the job they are elected to perform. While the term specifically calls out presidents (Hi, Donald Trump!), it refers to every public servant who appears more in headlines and news articles for something crazy rather than for their work.
Someone who I might call a presfluencer is not entirely to blame for being labelled one, though. We live in a world of people addicted to their phones and obsessed with how they are perceived, so who am I to blame a politician for relating to their audience in a modern and creative way?
Social media has been very helpful in campaigning and in political outreach in general. Taking advantage of this tool is not the sin I am addressing, though.
With the rise in popularity of Twitter, now X, politicians have used X to communicate with their base and reach out to possible voters.
Many politicians have polished, inviting, and, most importantly, normal X accounts where they have a balanced feed.
Take Senator Tim Scott (@votetimscott) and Senator Chuck Schumer (@chuckschumer) for example.
Both accounts mention various political takes and issues, nothing too controversial, accomplishments, and even a Thanksgiving greeting. It is also implied that they likely have a social media manager who, at the minimum, approves or helps reword messages.
Their social media is a testament to who they are as politicians- relatively mild-mannered and mostly unproblematic within their own political spheres.
My problem is not with these kinds of politicians.
I have a problem with politicians who exist solely to stir up controversy, upset, and misinformation. I’m lookin’ at you, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, often referred to as MTG, might be one of the worst non-president presfluencers in the United States. I truly find myself wondering how she has actually done her job and served her district, because it seems to me that she has been spending her time as an elected official posting about conspiracies, whining about how horrible President Biden is and fear mongering.
From an unbiased standpoint, it seems that she is more set on making headlines than actually serving her community. There is far more on her social media that seems to be controversial content that does not concern her policy than her actual work towards change or bettering her community in Congress.
Donald Trump is the OG and most infamous presfluencer. His X account during the height of his presidency was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen, and I would sometimes look at it for a laugh, only to quickly remember that he was our actual president, so it wasn’t that funny.
Even though he did a lot of good during his time as president, the abrasiveness, crudeness, and lack of seriousness of the posts his social media accounts took the attention away from his policy work and opened him up to a lot more criticism than he deserved.
It’s humorous to see how President Biden tries very hard to do the opposite. His social media team focuses far more on his political work, likely to distract from his age and other faults in the media.
Perhaps the most pressing and modern example is Vivek Ramaswamy, an American entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate.
“Politicians” like Ramaswamy are why it is arguably the worst possible time to be alive as an educated voter. There’s no one, or very rarely anyone, good or qualified enough to vote for!
In a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, a voter called out Ramaswamy and his “seemingly nonsensical fast-talking empty words interspersed with name dropping Thomas Jefferson and George Washington” which she noted “should not be misconstrued as knowledgeable.”
Though Ramaswamy has very little political momentum and will likely drop in the coming weeks or months, he is popular amongst younger people for all the wrong reasons.
People in my generation do not consider politics important. They ignore news and fail to research important events, or worse, learn about events through social media.
They see Ramaswamy on TikTok with Jake Paul or making trendy videos and think it’s “cool,” as if being “cool” means you’re qualified to be POTUS.
Modern politics is about posting, not policy, and it’s a problem we need to start talking about.