The evil genius of clown politics
George Santos (if that is his name) is more than a Strangelovian political farce. More than a Republican “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love a Bum.” Merely laughing at him, writes The Atlantic‘s David Graham, is missing the darker implications for our politics. Do not let your amusement, he warns, “eclipse the horror of such a candidate reaching office and the consequences for Congress and the American political system’s remaining shreds of repute.”
Yes, Santos (if that is his name) duped voters in his district. Yes, he ought to be investigated for laws he may have broken in running. But the fact of his being elected just two years after a violent insurrection instigated over bogus allegations of a stolen election adds an element of tragedy.
The fact that Santos (if that is his name) ran and won election to the U.S. House as an even phonier business success than Donald J. Trump — he of reality TV, of a bankrupt casino, of a fraudulent foundation, of a scam university, of alleged tax and bank fraud, of 30,000 lies, of “Stop the Steal,” and of uncounted cultish rallies — should leave us more unsettled than amused.
“Are you not entertained?” shouts Maximus (Russel Crowe) to the arena crowd after slaying multiple gladiators (and beheading the last). “Is this not why you are here?”
When politics is reduced to entertainment, solving serious social problems is left either to clowns or to “do-gooder” plutocrats answerable to no one. More likely than not, problems will be left to fester until gangrenous. And then?
Graham writes:
Jon Stewart, who in his previous guise as host of The Daily Show was both a lucid critic and a major catalyst of politics-as-entertainment, connected Santos to Trump in this respect this week. “The thing we have to be careful of, and I always caution myself on this and I ran into this trouble with Trump, is we cannot mistake absurdity for lack of danger, because it takes people with no shame to do shameful things,” he said.
Even if Santos is eventually forced out of office, as seems possible, treating him like a mere joke risks feeding a vicious cycle that will persist after his exit. When clowns get elected, it rightly lowers the esteem in which the public holds Congress; this, in turn, leads voters to be more apt to elect more clowns, which only produces a Congress even less worthy of respect. So go ahead, laugh at George Santos. But when your giggles peter out, don’t let your attention drift away.
The question remains of where Santos (if that is his name), “previously strapped for cash,” as Graham notes, “suddenly got the money to loan his campaign $700,000.”
One might postulate an Evil Genius behind our politics coming to this. Behind Trump. Behind Santos (if that is his name). Behind the 15 ballots it took to elect Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Behind the hollowing out of popular sovereignty and the creeping global hunger for strongmen.
Even faux strongmen like Trump are spectacle enough to fill arenas with ardent crowds screaming like pro wrestling fans for the heads of their enemies. Trump’s mob attacked and filled the Capitol two years ago calling for men and women they view as heel politicians to be dragged out and hung.
If, somewhere in the shadows, there lurks an Evil Genius intent on ending the age of democracies, promoting clowns — Trump, Santos (if that is his name), Gaetz, Greene, Gosar, Boebert, Jordan — might be the way to go. Social media makes it easy. Reduce politics to bread and circuses. Make government a chaotic mockery until the leaderless call out for the iron will of a strongman to supplant the will of the people.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida, is auditioning for that role by engaging in human trafficking, academic censorship, ideological warfare, and voter suppression.
“Amid a rise in intolerance and fascism throughout the United States,” Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois offers an alternative. He is just one example of a democratic normalcy that lately seems almost vestigial.
Choose wisely.