If you had the good fortune (or misfortune, take your pick) of tuning into CNN this past weekend, there are strong odds you were treated to its advert for the upcoming Republican debate on Dec. 15.
For those who haven’t seen it, allow us to set the mood: A smoky, black background is quickly juxtaposed by the loud, bright iconography of the CNN logo. A silver, WordArt-esque rendering of the word "TRUMP" appears, followed by a tasteful portrait of the orange man himself. Light runs across his smug and static face, exposing the mounds of concealer makeup meant to cover the wrinkles and blemishes accrued over a lifetime of opulence and unearned self-satisfaction.
Other high-profile Republican Party nominees (Ben Carson and Jeb Bush) are given the same treatment until the ad gets to the nominees no one really cares about, such as Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie. All the while intense, dramatic music plays, underlying how "serious" it all is.
The commercial elicited two immediate reactions from us: One was a spirited debate over whether Christie binge-ate from sadness after discovering he wasn’t afforded the WordArt treatment. The other was disbelief at the ongoing transformation of politics into a spectator sport.
Perhaps "sport" isn’t the right descriptor, since — likely owing in large part to our democratic system of governance — American politics have always fit nicely into the tropes surrounding sports narratives. There are winners and losers, comeback kids and villains, with the additional fall from grace for equal measure. It would be disingenuous to deny the connection between sports and politics.
The better word may be "game," which if Donald Trump’s ascension is any indication, is exactly what the 2016 presidential election is being treated as. The aforementioned CNN commercial is only a symptom, rather than a cause, of this mentality. The GOP nominees are not action heroes scaling the Nakatomi Plaza building in an attempt to foil Hans Gruber and his minions’ sinister plot to steal millions in bearer bonds. Advertising the debate with music, which may as well have come from the John Williams songbook, only undermines the actual seriousness of the matter.
Unlike the machinations of games or sporting events, the ongoing process of politicking has a measurable, discernible impact on our lives. As amusing as it may be to place bets and treat election seasons as races, we seem all too quick to forget those loathed, loud characters on our TV screens directly influence our quality of life.
Life is too short to be treated with the utmost seriousness, and politics is no exception. With that said, when our culture actively seeks to make our political narratives appear more akin to those of blockbuster films and escapist fantasies, it can get a little hard to keep laughing.
