The master of radio comedy, Fred Allen, observed in 1950 that the broadcast upstart of television was known as a "medium … because nothing on it is well done." Ernie Kovacs later expanded Allen's witticism: "Television is a medium … because it is neither rare nor well done." Another Allen — Woody — humanized the growing consensus: "Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television."
Somewhere, in that triad of comedic brilliance, there is commentary on Republican presidential politics as the wretched medium of television — and thus life itself. Their race to the bottom is a kind of sado-masachistic lollapalooza: It's excruciating to watch, yet it's so painfully bad, it is irresistible. Posthumously directing this televised horror of clichéd creatures is Ed Wood Jr., right? Gotta be. His cast is composed of cape-swearing Bela Lugosis fluttering around like morphine-addicted bats, and none of their performances is either rare or well done.
One could argue that Donald Trump is the exception. That argument has some validity, although its validity is problematic. Is his demagogic shtick really that rare? The GOP Congress is a boneheaded asylum that "earned" its seats and its bat wings by proleptically spewing, way back in two-thousand-aught-nine and 10, Trumpist simplicities and fabricated outrages of tea-party fame. The Donald merely took note of what excites the rubes. He then put those excitements on a higher stage; however it must be conceded that they were preceded. Is his cape-wearing Lugosi routine well done? As Lugosi routines go, yes. But that very routine is, by definition, self-limiting.
Nonetheless, Trump is the undisputed star of this show. Indeed his political genius, so to speak, reminds me of mailroom Timothy Robbins' idea for a great invention — a circle — pitched to the corporately wicked Paul Newman in that hilariously dark film, The Hudsucker Proxy. Robbins' stunningly simple circle is initially rejected as a "product" but is then accepted by board members as a way to depress the company's value in a stock-manipulation scheme. The circle, of course, turns out to be the hula hoop, a nearly peerless toy of popular craze.
Trump, then, is more Robbins than Lugosi, and his circles are amusing items of striking yet quite precedented populist allure. Still, to some extent we can say, Well done, Donald.
The true cape-wearing Lugosis abound, however, and their circles are mere knockoffs — just like bad, life-imitating television and those lowest-budget "B" horror films.
In reading, for example, about Scott Walker's newly sought mojo, one winces. The NY Times reports that the lugubrious Walker "suggested to donors on Monday that he was pivoting to a message more directly attacking Washington to fend off a growing threat to his campaign from candidates who have never held elected office, such as Donald J. Trump." Said the dreadfully dull governor on the conference call: "We’re about as anti-Washington as you can get…. [W]e need to step it up and remind people that we didn’t just take on the unions and Democrats, we had to take on my own party establishment."
It hurts; the mimicry positively hurts. And they're all acting that way, excepting Jeb Bush, who, excepting his morbid imitation of brother George, has no more idea of what he's doing than we do.
But it's entertaining, is it not? — this life-imitating grievousness that is neither rare nor well done? — these truly wretched performances we can't take our eyes off of, like a horrible late-night bomb of a film? It's like watching Plan 15 from Outer Space, endurable only because The Trumpsucker Proxy is on a continuous run.
What goes around cometh around, and usually hits you in the back of the neck. I well remember the angst and anger directed at the Obama administration by those on the left who failed to get their self promised ponies. It was hardly less intense than the venom from the right. And now it is the turn of the right to bear the anger of their own tribe. The difference, of course, is they created and drove the anger themselves.
Washington is evil and incompetent they say. The Republican party has failed to meet the expectations that came with majorities in the House and Senate. They were captured by the system. They are all the same. And so we are privileged to watch as every Washington outsider, for which we may include the rank political amateurs like Trump and Carson and Fiorina with the governors running for office. All of whom have a primary message that requires them to first attack the Senators running for office as part of the Washington problem.
As entertainment, it doesn't get much better than this. Which of the two tribes will dominate this particular iteration of Survivor remains to be seen but my money is now on the guy with the most reality game show experience.
Posted by: Peter G | August 19, 2015 at 09:43 AM
Walker is a bad actor, but in the political entertainment metaphor he's more like a fluffer in oligarchic legislative porn and a willing slave to the Koch-run production company, The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The purpose of ALEC is to write boilerplate bills advantageous to corporations and distribute them to local governments. While far from being the only moneyed interests supporting ALEC, the Kochs have been members of its corporate board for 20 years. Probably recognizing he has nothing going for himself but naked ambition and a talent for whoring, Walker joined the cast from 1993-2002 while a state legislator.
In part, ALEC runs a farm team for political submissives. Since Walker proved himself talented and enthusiastic at keeping the ALEC juices flowing in the Wisconsin State Assembly, he attracted the attention of the big, swinging Kochs who made him their very own boy and bought him the governorship. Since then Walker has followed the ALEC playbook to the letter and pushed bills to bust unions, disenfranchise voters, round up immigrants, privatize schools and public holdings, and push corporate tax cuts while trashing state government revenue streams. He makes a vampire's sucking look attractive.
Posted by: Bob | August 19, 2015 at 10:28 AM