The 2024 Tuskies

Looking at the best and the worst of the past year

Disclosure: 2024 was not my favorite year. There were a number of personal, political, and professional setbacks, but also some amazing opportunities for research and travel. Anyway, below is kind of a year in review, consisting of some epic moments in politics, pop culture, and food.

Best political moment I witnessed firsthand: It’s been a lifelong goal of mine to be present for a big nomination campaign moment — an epic speech, a candidate withdrawal, a governor shouting “Byaaaah!”, or something like that. So I was most gratified to be in the room, with my students, in Des Moines when Vivek Ramaswamy conceded his defeat in the Iowa caucuses, suspended his campaign, and pledged his support to Donald Trump. I suppose the runner-up event would be at the Republican convention in Milwaukee when Trump described to a rapt crowd the attempt on his life from a few days earlier in a way that only someone who would rather run for president than go to therapy can do.

Biggest political party story:

• Democrats: In the seven weeks between the Trump/Biden presidential debate and the Democratic National Convention, the Democrats pushed their scandal-free, well-accomplished incumbent president off the ticket because they thought he would lose. That’s an amount of party power we don’t often see in the U.S. Yet it was not completely without precedent — similar things happened when Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson declined to run for reelection in 1952 and 1968, respectively. In all three cases, the exact same thing happened: a replacement candidate almost certainly did better than the incumbent would have (possibly saving some congressional seats in the process) but still lost.

• Republicans: In the seven weeks between Trump’s felony criminal conviction in a Manhattan courtroom and the Republican National Convention, the Republicans absolutely did not push their expected nominee off the ticket, instead doubling down in their support for him. This despite polling suggesting that some independents were moving away from Trump as a result of the conviction and they could lose the presidential race as a result. It nicely depicted the two very different attitudes across the parties about just what an electable candidate looks like and how important that trait is.

Political story that got memory-holed: There are so many. But one that still sticks with me is that Nikki Haley got within 11 points of Trump in the 2024 Republican New Hampshire Primary, and no one was talking about it a few weeks later. Pat Buchanan lost the New Hampshire Primary to George H.W. Bush by 15 points 33 years ago and we still talk about it as a close shave. It suggests to me that there was actually more dissent within the Republican Party this year than we generally think, and of course basically all those folks still voted for the nominee at the end of the day, but for a while that nomination contest was actually competitive.

Question we asked too much: Are Black voters becoming Republican?

Question we asked too little: Are Latino voters becoming Republican?

Under-appreciated campaign story: The polls did well this year. Poll after poll showed basically a tied race for the popular vote; Trump won the popular vote by less than two points. This was a low error rate, and better than in other recent elections. Despite many worries, a number of adjustments, and record low response rates, the polling industry is actually doing what it’s supposed to do.

Most telling vibes shift: After an election that was heavily determined by dour economic assessments (despite pretty strong economic numbers), Republicans started saying the economy is actually good now, while Democrats started saying it’s actually bad now.

My favorite book: Trust by Hernan Diaz. It tells the story of the intricate marriage of a tragic and influential New York couple in the early 20th century through four very different and clever narrative styles. The writing manages to be complex and beautiful while also engaging and breezy.

My favorite film: I found 2024 a pretty meh year for big studio films overall. A weak “Apes” movie, a just-okay “Twister” movie, a kind of dumb “Gladiator” movie, etc. But “Dune: Part 2” stands out to me as not only a brilliant rendering of some strong source material but even an interesting improvement on Part 1. The way it handles the vagueness (and political utility) of prophecy, the insanely creepy portrayal of Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), the strong upgrading of the character of Chani (Zendaya), her differences from the more devout Stilgar (a pitch-perfect Javier Bardem), etc., were all incredibly well done. Possibly my favorite scene is when Paul Muad’Dib (Timothée Chalamet) goes to the southern religious council to win supporters. Instead of calmly appealing to them, he immediately spouts heresies, looks to see who is most ready to cut his tongue out, and then proceeds to win that person over using his own insights, thus winning the crowd. It’s intense, and Chalamet’s transition from the frail dauphin in the first film to the charismatic jihadist in the second shows some impressive range and growth.

Close runners-up: “Civil War” and “Furiosa.”

My favorite TV series: “The Three Body Problem.” This is a favorite sci-book book series of mine, and I won’t claim that the TV show did everything right in its adaptation. But it did a lot very well. Cixin Liu is an amazing sci-fi writer but is generally not great with characters, and the show helpfully put some flesh on these people. The show correctly set the back story in revolutionary China but made the rest of the story more multi-national, and it mostly worked. The VR video game aspect of the story translated to screen far better than I would have expected. The Panama Canal scene, adapted very faithfully from the book, was one of the more visually intense things I’ve seen on TV in years.

Best thing I ate: I had the opportunity to have some real treasures this year during some unexpected international travel. So I’ll give a tie to the ayam goreng fried chicken and roti canai with dhal at Roti King (a Malaysian-Singapore restaurant in London) and an autumn dessert at Høst in Copenhagen consisting of a disc of frozen apple juice on top of white chocolate ice cream with hazelnuts and a pickled pine cone on top.

Best thing I made: I didn’t really go nuts with the food prep this year, but I did bake my share of pies, breads, and rugelach (my grandmother did it better).

Best music show I saw: I’ve been living in Nashville for the past few months, and in that time I’ve probably seen more live music than I had in the previous ten years. One real standout was Jack Schneider, a very chill folk musician who used to play guitar with Vince Gill. Check him out!