Old Men, New Politics?  
II:  
The Biden Presidency Did Not Take Place 
United States of America 

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (La Guerre du Golfe n’a pas eu lieu) is a collection of three short essays by French philosopher and semiologist Jean Baudrillard, originally published in Libération and The Guardian between January and March 1991 – the title references the play The Trojan War Will Not Take Place by Jean Giraudoux.

Baudrillard argued across a trilogy of essays – the Gulf War will not take place, the Gulf War is not really taking place, and the Gulf War did not take place – that the war as presented by western media was heavily filtered through television, military briefings, and other forms of mediation. Mainstream media presented a curated version of events, filled with propagandastic footage and framing devices, predominantly withholding images of human suffering and the destructive consequences of war from viewers. His contention – perhaps quaint in retrospect given the emergence of 24/7 news cycles and social media – was the event, ultimately characterised by media simulation, the hyperreal sterilisation of war, and an absence of reality – would be remembered as the consumption of a spectacle, rather than with meaningful historical clarity. 
Baudrillard claims that in postmodern society, the formerly clear distinction betweeen reality and representation have become blurred, introducing the notion of simulacra to describe copies of things that no longer have an original or never had an original referent.  

Who Is Joe Biden? 
Joe Biden’s long career in politics began with his election to the U.S. Senate in 1972. Known for his experience in foreign policy and bipartisanship, Biden was chosen by Barack Obama as his vice-presidential running mate in 2008 to balance the ticket. Obama saw Biden’s experience and his appeal to white working-class voters as assets that would detract from criticism that his own political record was comparatively lean. However, Biden’s political career has not been without controversies: he faced criticism for his role in crafting the 1994 Crime Bill, which led to mass incarceration, and for his handling of Anita Hill’s testimony during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in 1991. Biden’s record on issues such as school desegregation and his past support for the Iraq War have also drawn scrutiny from progressives. 
In the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden’s early performance was underwhelming and his campaign initially floundered, placing poorly in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire, but after a strong showing in South Carolina, establishment Democrats coalesced around his candidacy. This move, which many saw as an effort to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the nomination, helped Biden secure the Democratic nomination, and ultimately the presidency, albeit with an underwhelming margin of victory on election night. 

Becoming Dark Brandon 
The “Let’s Go Brandon” meme became a political slogan in the United States during Joe Biden’s presidency. It originated in October 2021 at a NASCAR race, when driver Brandon Brown was being interviewed after a victory. In the background, some in the crowd were chanting “F*** Joe Biden.” The NBC reporter conducting the interview either misheard or attempted to downplay the chant, saying, “You can hear the chants from the crowd: ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’” 

This misinterpretation quickly went viral, with “Let’s Go Brandon” becoming a coded, more socially acceptable way for critics of Joe Biden, particularly conservatives, to express their disapproval of the president without using explicit language. It spread rapidly across social media and conservative circles, and the phrase was soon adopted on merchandise, in political rallies, and even by some Republican politicians as a symbol of opposition to Biden’s policies and administration. 

In terms of affirmative Republican memes, “Dark MAGA” is a fringe meme and internet subculture that emerged as a response to his loss in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. “Dark MAGA” imagery features a stylised, dystopian version of Trump, depicted as an avenger seeking retribution against political elites, the media, and even members of the Republican establishment perceived as insufficiently loyal or complicit in his defeat. Trump is often portrayed in front of ominous backgrounds, often dressed in black, sometimes with glowing red eyes.
The meme envisions a more vengeful, authoritarian, and unapologetic version of Trump and while the meme is largely a form of “internet edgelord humour” or political trolling, it reflects a strain of disillusionment among some Trump supporters who believe that more aggressive, uncompromising tactics are needed to reclaim political power. “Dark MAGA” is perhaps best understood as a kitsch veneer for extremist political actors to navigate online spaces and play with ironic gestures that obscure their fascistic tendencies, trading on obviously absurd characterisations of Trump and his allies, but also speaking to the increasingly extreme, authoritarian, anti-democratic strain on the far right of the party, including those involved in Project 2025.  

In direct contrast, the “Dark Brandon” meme is an ironic and satirical internet phenomenon that inverted these Republican memes and transformed them to reflect the absurd power fantasy invoked by Trump’s fringe supporters online. If the rambling and idiotic perception of Trump can be transformed into a no-nonsense, supervillian-like figure by meme culture, why not the mild-mannered and grandfatherly president? Gaining popularity in 2022, Dark Brandon reimagines Joe Biden as a powerful, almost supervillain-like figure, designed to mock the exaggerated power fantasies and conspiratorial tendencies reflected by “Dark MAGA” posts. Dark Brandon is a hyper-competent and nefarious alter-ego, often presented with laser eyes or exaggerated, comic book-like imagery; a commanding, no-nonsense leader secretly controlling global events with steely resolve. Biden was portrayed by conservatives as both a doddering old fool and a secret authoritarian, and these memes served to mock these inconsistencies. It became so popular that Biden himself referenced Dark Brandon at the White House’s correspondents’ dinner and in television appearances. 

After Dark Brandon 
The strangest ending to the story of Dark Brandon was how the phantasmatic projection of a wily strategist secretly operating with ruthless political acumen behind the scenes bled into the actual DNC communications strategy. Biden was portrayed as being authoritative, “on top of his brief”, lucid and intelligent in private in a manner he was coincidentally unable to consistently replicate in public, despite the latter being obviously more useful for a President.  
By February, 62% of registered voters believed that Biden should not run for re-election, citing his demonstrable cognitive decline, and after a distrastous performance in the first televised presidential debate, it became 72% – but as late as  30 June, establishment analysts writing in respected journals and papers of record were compelling the electorate to ignore the evidence of their eyes and ears. They wanted voters to believe in the clandestine acumen ironically attributed to Dark Brandon, to have faith that behind the glowing red eyes, and the ironic depiction of an omnipotent political maestro online, existed all those secret competencies that had fringe Trump supporters paranoid all along. Perhaps they wanted us to see a version of the president that we could not see ourselves; perhaps they wanted us to believe in the blurry spectacle between simulation and reality; perhaps the Biden presidency did not take place.