Coming to a Political Theater Near You
It’s presidential campaign season again.
I dread these times because the truth tends to be an early casualty. Sound bites rule the day and public policy needs to be summed up in the space of a Twitter post or it gets no traction. News outlets forgo educating the public and instead circle the campaigns like predators, waiting for the inevitable gaffe that they can blow up like a grenade. And let’s not forget the money, great tidal waves of money that line pockets and keep the volume at an earth-shaking roar.
Campaigns are won by media time, poise, and narrative. Policy can wait for the winners to hold office.
There is a Twilight Zone quality to these times, a surreality that blankets us. Submitted for your approval; the presidential campaign of Rick Perry. Perry, the current Governor of Texas, is positioning himself as the Republican heir apparent. He is right out of central casting; square-jawed, steely-eyed, impeccably-coiffed (Molly Ivens nicknamed him “Goodhair” in her much-missed columns). He is the Six Million Dollar Man in a tailored suit. And his has just released his first televised campaign ad.
I’m not linking to this. It’s easily found if you’re curious. I’m still scrubbing my eyeballs.
But the bombast! This camapign ad takes it’s cues from summer movie trailers; sweeping orchestral music, fast-moving, blocky typography, rippling flags, and carefully placed imagery of it’s handsome leading man. Perry is running for office to lead a powerful nation under the mantle of a big, dumb action movie.
It pains me to say that this strategy could work and perhaps is working.
It doesn’t matter that Perry is a lousy governor (a quick look at Texas quality-of-life metrics makes this evident). The voting public is badly informed, easily-swayed, and, in this age of recession, in a really bad mood. Once upon a time, I would have thought the public would see right through the theatrics, but I fear the public will prefer the movie version of a president rather than the real thing.
