Reality TV
Eats U.S. Politics
Gary Kenton
I’ve been absent
from the Class Wars site for a few months.
Actually, I moved (from the Hudson River Valley to
Greensboro, North Carolina). But, as we
all know, whether you are talking about garbage, the Internet, or politics,
there is no such thing as “away.” As the
ancient Chinese proverb has it, wherever you go, there you are. And no matter where you live in these United
States, there is no escaping the embarrassing spectacle of the presidential
campaign.
As we head
into the home stretch of the political primary season, it is all too easy to
see how the process, which is supposed to help citizens focus on the issues that
matter, actually serves to distract us, not only from the issues that might
matter to us, but from anything resembling reality.
There are a
lot of factors that have contributed to the Trump phenomenon. The most obvious (and undeniable) analysis
sees the roots of the embrace of Trump’s quasi-Fascist appeal in the
dog whistle politics of fear and divisiveness pioneered by Richard Nixon, soft-pedaled
by Ronald Reagan, and broadcast as gospel by Fox News. But nothing has prepared the country for
Trump nearly as much as his sideways shift from real estate mogul to reality TV
star. Previously, his “power” was
largely illusory, confined to his own businesses, legal bullying tactics, and
the notoriety that our culture bestows on people willing to trade their
identity for a brand. But when Trump got
to The Apprentice, millions of
Americans watched him hire and fire, exerting power over people’s lives. Even if the situations were manufactured and
played for dramatic effect, viewers readily identified with people whose jobs
were precarious and whose fate was in the hands of an arbitrary and idiotic
boss.
What we have been witnessing over the past six
months is, more than anything else, a TV show.
Even if you don’t get most of your information directly from the tube,
all the candidates, their campaigns, and the sound bites they utter, are as
packaged for television (and YouTube and Twitter) as a used car
commercial. The viewing public was given
a choice between two very different sets of debates: the Republican debates,
which resembled a Farrelly Brothers movie without the laughs, and the
Democratic debates, which were mostly civil and focused, at least
superficially, on actual issues. The TV
audience preferred the Republican circus, by a wide margin.
Spurred by
the ratings, the moderators and networks responded not as journalists but as
their own brands, with more concern for network competition and stock prices
than the public they are supposed to serve. Doing their best to make each question as
personal and mean-spirited as possible, the debates were like episodes of The Apprentice or Survivor, with the viewing public acting as a surrogate for
Trump. We are voters! We determine winners and losers! We decide who will survive and who will be
sent back to menial tasks as governors, lobbyists, and consultants.
A kind of
transference has taken place. Millions
of Americans tell themselves that they are attracted to Trump because he is an
“outsider,” because he “tells it like it is,” or because he is rich and not beholden
to deep-pocketed donors, but the plain fact is that he is a Mussolini-type
authority figure, full of bombast and fury and venom. An astonishingly high percentage of his
supporters are ignorant, dominated by poor people who have never been willing
or able to meet the requirements necessary to attain a high school
diploma. Trump isn’t the candidate of
the downtrodden, but rather the dumbed-down.
Just as with
the vast majority of TV advertising, Trump’s appeal is dependent on the
avoidance of cognition. He doesn’t
discuss policy or ideology any more than an Apple commercial discusses the drawbacks
of technology or a Geico commercial provides information about the risks of
driving. The goal of advertising is to associate
products with certain values and emotions.
This can be accomplished in a 30-second TV ad because there is no
reasoning involved. It was Ronald Reagan
who, when frustrated at being presented with evidence that undermined his “government
is the problem” ideology, said that “facts are stupid things.” Four decades later, Trump thrives in a
post-factual political environment, eschewing the real for the
reactionary. And the audience at home is
eating it up.
Actually,
the reality TV that the presidential debates most closely resembles is
professional wrestling, with its pseudo heroism and good guy / bad guy
theatrics. The surprising part, as my
friend Richard Meltzer noted, is that the audience doesn’t seem to recognize that
Trump is one of the bad guys. Rubio did
his best to wear a white hat, offering a (relatively) sane and positive
alternative. (Cruz can’t even pretend to
be anything but a nasty son-of-a-bitch.)
But pro wrestling fans have always loved their bad guys, and given the
choice between Rubio’s sanctimonious bible-thumping and Trump’s nose-thumbing,
make-it-up-as-you-go gamesmanship, they opt for the guy with the swagger and
the outrageous comb-over. Trump is an
entertainer, an honest liar.
Not that the
Democrats are asking me, but here’s my advice to Bernie Sanders or Hillary
Clinton for the general election. Engage
with Trump as little as possible. Let
surrogates point out his errors, his hatefulness, his ignorance of history, and
his lack of basic understanding of geopolitical realities. He is a TV personality and not worthy of your
attention; you are running for President of the United States, not a role in a
made-for-TV movie.
