2016 Gave Us "Fight Song," But 2020 Has Provided So Much More

In 2007, Amber Lee Ettinger, aka "Obama Girl," created I Got a Crush On Obama, a ballad for then-senator Barack Obama that went viral in the nascent days of the modern internet.

While it's impossible to ascertain just how much the video may have propelled Obama's presidential candidacy, it certainly provided the Senator a boost of internet popularity that candidates have been trying to imitate ever since. In 2016, Hillary Clinton supporters attempted to give her candidacy a similar boost by co-opting Rachel Platten's "Fight Song", culminating in an infamous, celebrity-filled video which seemed to unwittingly underline one of the issues with her campaign: that people saw her as out-of-touch, and her support base was comprised of rich, Hollywood elites instead of average Americans.

This election cycle, the supporters of Democratic presidential candidates have treaded even further into cringe territory with musical moments that are nigh-unbearable to watch. It all started when supporters of Mayor Pete Buttigieg began expressing their enthusiasm for the candidate by dancing to High Hopes by Panic! At the Disco. It was absolutely brutal.

Good god pic.twitter.com/uZLhMW1PIY

— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) November 4, 2019

The viral dance inspired comedians Nick Ciarelli and Brad Evans to record a similarly silly dance with their improv troupe called Moves Like Bloomberg, a troll so spot-on, it fooled many in the media and continues to trick high-profile marks into thinking it was sincere. Yesterday, Ted Cruz tried to pull a "gotcha" on Democrats by reposting the video without knowing it was parody.

How civilizations crumble. https://t.co/53zZWJcYH6

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 5, 2020

Perhaps the worst dance of the bunch was performed by a group of Joe Biden supporters who displayed their Biden-themed Backstreet Boys parody for the former Vice President shortly before Iowa (shown below). It's… a lot to take in.

Watch as a chorus of Gen Zs presents a political rendition of Backstreet Boys to a Boomer. pic.twitter.com/mx23NScneH

— Kate Hyde (@KateHydeNY) February 10, 2020

Buttigieg and Bloomberg both dropped out recently, and while the reasons why are certainly bigger than a viral dance, it's tempting to imagine America cringed so hard that they were forced to leave the race. Whether the same fate befalls Biden is yet to be seen.

At least we'll always have Tom Steyer dancing to "Back That Azz Up."