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Oh, they all write like that since the New Journalism, because it's human interest donchaknow, it makes it bright and newsy and relatable and gives people a hook to emotionally attach to the story.
Ordinarily this annoys me, because I want "just the facts, ma'am" and I don't care if blonde 42 year old Doris was sipping her morning coffee as she looked out her kitchen window and saw the car crash, I want to know "there was a car crash? where?"
But in this case it doesn't matter, since it's not reporting as such, it's a colour piece about a bunch of insufferable youngish leftyish Democrats chewing one another's faces off over who gets to steer the party, vaguely realising that if they want to win seats they need to have policies that appeal to normal people, and tripping over themselves not to use the word "populist" since they have succeeded in making that a dirty word, but also realising that damn it, they need to be populist.
So the pretentious twats in both camps being described as sipping their cocktails as they have their 'happy hour' parties and watch and rewatch videos of old election debates are perfectly suited for this style. In this case, I do want to know if they look like 'inflated eight year olds' (oooh, that one was sharp) and what kind of nonsense they indulge in, thinking this makes them cool and mysterious when it just makes them look like prats to the adults in the room.
I mean, a guy who can say with a straight face that "hungry kids are counting on us" should be mocked soundly, roundly and often by having someone write in excruciating detail what his sad little drinking group are like as they fool themselves that they matter, they're relevant, hey AOC swung by one of our dos a couple years back!
The photos, oh my God the photos. They look exactly as you imagine they'd look.
Imagine being a Democratic party operative who has worked in politics for donkey's years, and this twenty year old infant strolls in wearing a black T-shirt and saying nothing because he wants to look cool. Do you, grown-up politics person, think "Wow I should let myself be said and led by this wunderkind" or do you go "Holy crap, is this what the party has come to? Okay, we'll let the nerds do the number-crunching in the back while we do the real work of the campaign"?
Imagine being so clueless you take the advice of people around you to wear black and say nothing, you'll be cool and mysterious, you'll have that rock-star vibe (meanwhile, to anyone over the age of thirty, it's abundantly clear you only started shaving two years ago).
The black t-shirt, eh whatever, but you've got to admit that "say nothing" is powerfully good advice in context. "Mouth shut, ears open" is something every novice usually doesn't hear enough.
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Good points. Perhaps by accident, it's useful information in this article, rather than just a thin sickly familiar in the form of Hunter S. Thompson.
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