To those about to drop out of the Democratic primary, we salute you

So long and thanks for all the memes

Donkeys.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Vac1/iStock, Asya_mix/iStock, Miodrag Kitanovic/iStock)

It is the end of an era. Maybe not a particularly long era, or an especially venerated one, and admittedly it might not be an era people will remember with much clarity six months from now, but it was an era nevertheless. You can call it the first phase of the 2020 presidential election, or the earliest stage of the Democratic primary, or Survivor: Fox Theatre. Maybe your only reference to this period will be some vague statement a year from now like, "Hey, remember when that guy Tim Ryan was running for president, did we ever figure out who he was, anyway?"

The initial 26-candidate cage match that has been the Democratic presidential primary up to this point reached its peak before the first debate in June, and has not, on the whole, been kindly received — not by Democrats, who would really like to cut through all the noise of the future has-beens and take this more seriously, thank you, nor by Republicans, who are dealing with their own 2016 PTSD. "The Democratic debates are going to be an absolute mess," we anticipated last month at The Week and, well, fact check: true. The Los Angeles Times ruled "reality TV has nothing on the Democratic debates." USA Today wrote that the "debates don't match the moment. Time to get serious about beating Donald Trump." Slate slammed CNN for enabling "a gross display of cynical political theater that wasted everyone's time."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.