Plan B Forum

Over the years, the Steps attracted a substantial following outside the Beltway. In addition to weekly shows in D.C., they turned out regular “Politics Takes a Holiday” specials heard on public radio and traveled the country, sometimes delivering 500 performances a year. By the end, they’d performed in all 50 states and for five presidents — Ford, Reagan, Clinton and both Bushes — plus a number of Cabinet officials and members of Congress, who typically were offended only if they weren’t parodied in the show.

Yet in January 2021, after more than 40 albums, the Steps announced that they “simply weren’t built to survive going a year or more without live performances” during the pandemic. That got me thinking about the Steps’ unlikely origins and their considerable success, and about how growing political polarization made their middle-of-the-road approach to comedy harder to sustain — especially in the Trump era.

Political humor had changed. It was less lighthearted, more snarky and sarcastic. Washington had changed, no longer a place where Democrats and Republicans would rib one another without too many hurt feelings.