Please Stay Annoyed About Daylight Savings Time

Most Americans hate changing their clocks twice a year. And yet, somehow, we still do it. Like a national tradition of mild suffering.

Years ago, voters were thrilled when the topic finally made it onto ballots and into legislation. The message seemed clear: let’s stop this nonsense. No more springtime confusion at airports. No more Outlook calendar gymnastics trying to figure out whether the meeting is actually at 9am, 10am, or in some mysterious hybrid timezone invented by Microsoft. No more doctors reminding us that abruptly changing our sleep cycles twice a year is apparently not great for our health or our lifespan.

For a moment, it even looked like progress might happen.

The President applauded the effort and encouraged Congress to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. Several states eagerly joined the movement with their own versions of the Sunshine Protection Act. The public was happy. Politicians could claim a bipartisan win. A rare, easy political victory where literally everyone agreed.

Naturally, nothing happened. Congress appears to have moved on to more pressing matters. For example, explaining why certain military activities technically aren’t wars, or why taxpayers might need to wait a little longer for tariff refunds that were recently declared unconstitutional. The President hasn’t posted about it on Truth Social. Senators are quiet. Representatives are quiet.

It’s almost impressive. Did everyone collectively forget? Or did someone quietly rediscover the original reason Daylight Saving Time existed in the first place and decide maybe it wasn’t such a terrible idea after all?

Personally, I can live with it. Every spring I have a perfectly acceptable excuse for being tired. Politicians remain happy because the public remains mildly irritated but not quite irritated enough to demand action.

And the rest of us get to keep blaming the clocks. In politics, after all, no change is often the most reliable kind of change.