Politics Turns Into a ‘Reality TV’ Show

As of Thursday, February 9, 2012

It took me a while to figure out what was so gratingly familiar about the old-yet-new Republican presidential battle now being waged all over the tube.

I mean, we’ve always had groups of wannabes out there on a smile and a shoeshine and an American flag pin, vying so earnestly to win a major party’s nomination. That kind of thing has happened like clockwork every four years since the founding of the Republic.

And yet the ambiance surrounding the current GOP spectacle, while different in many ways from what we’ve seen before, kept naggingly reminding me of something else that has become a part of our society much more recently, something sick and sleazy that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

And then it hit me: What we have managed to do, whether consciously or not, is to turn the process of selecting our president into nothing more nor less than the political equivalent of the very worst programming on so-called “reality” television.

I hasten to say that I watch very little (as in no) reality TV, so beware — I may not know what I’m talking about. Still, I’ve seen enough snippets around the edges and read enough about this entertainment phenomenon to have developed a pretty good idea of what it is. And to know that it bugs the heck out of me.

It’s not just that I tend to identify with the many good screenwriters and professional actors who have been put out of work by this insidious trend, in which shows seem to write themselves as they go along and cast everyday, non-union folks in starring roles. That’s part of it. But it’s more that the whole thing seems so cheap and tacky and mean-spirited and inane and unworthy of America.

And now, God help us, we have begun putting the values behind the likes of “Big Brother,” “Survivor,” “Fear Factor,” “The Apprentice” and “The Biggest Loser” to work for us in helping us choose the leader of the Free World.

I’m telling you, it’s reality TV. This is the new us, and this is our new way of winnowing a field of candidates, a la “Dancing With the Stars,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “American Idol” or whatever.

Think about it. This endless succession of “debates” we have all been watching for all these months? — It’s a TV series, isn’t it? And a rather schlocky one at that. Its producers began by assembling a motley cast of characters from all over and throwing them together to see how they would interact under pressure: the flaky sexpot from Alaska, the rich frat kid from Massachusetts, the unknown but ambitious pizza salesman, the pudgy and pugnacious little name-caller, and so on.

Reality programs thrive on public humiliation, and there’s no shortage of that in this show.

These contestants, all so desperate for approval, may not have to dance or sing or jump out of airplanes or endure scorpion bites in remote tropical forests or get fired by Donald Trump. What they do have to do is endlessly hurl ridiculous lies and insults at each other while the studio audiences, their appetite for fresh blood whetted, cheer and scream their heads off like spectators at some ancient Roman gladiatorial combat.

We watch in morbid fascination as the cast of contestants gets subjected to an ever-more degrading series of public ordeals, until ultimately everybody but a lone survivor gets — what else? — voted off the island.

It didn’t use to be this way. Or maybe it did; I don’t know. But it does seem like there was a time when people seeking our votes actually spent most of their time talking in relatively gentlemanly fashion about their qualifications for public office and their dreams for the country or the state or whatever. There was at least a modicum of honor among thieves.

Now, apparently, the only thing that gets and keeps our jaded attention is some kind of vicious mud-wrestling match in which truth matters not at all and moderation has become a dirty word. And what ends up on the cutting room floor in the kind of reality programming, of course, is any semblance of rational, civilized debate about how to address the increasing tangle of problems facing our country.

Yep, that’s what we’ve come to: a high-stakes, unreal “reality” show that appeals to all our basest instincts, substituting its ugly, shallow self for genuine political process. And it promises to get even worse between now and November.

Again, this is unworthy of America. Hand me the remote.

Steve Bouser is editor of The Pilot. Contact him at (910) 693-2470 or by email at sbouser@thepilot.com.

More like this story

Bentpan 1 year, 3 months ago

Michael Dukakis Jesse Jackson Joseph Biden
Richard Gephardt Gary Hart Lloyd Bentsen Remember this batch from 1988 or even the 2008 primaries where the Obama camp portrayed Bill Clinton as a racist in an effort to smear Hillary, come on Mr. Bouser you're better than this, none of this is new, leave the BS hatchet jobs to Mr Rhoades, those that dwell in glass houses really shouldn't cast stones. But I must confess the line " the pudgy and pugnacious little name-caller" brings to mind someone a little closer to home, but I just can't quite put a finger on who.

truthmatterstome2 1 year, 3 months ago

Would also be a good idea to remember Johnny's "two Americas". His and everyone elses'.

MikeNC 1 year, 3 months ago

Now let me get this straight: ( I watch very little Reality TV Shows as in (never watch Reality TV Shows) and mangaged to to do an editorial on comparing the GOP primaries to a Reality TV Show ? Just wondering. Diane

geoffcutler 1 year, 3 months ago

Sorry, Steve, but once again I've got to follow Bentpan's lead. Had you mentioned some of the Democrat primaries, and Bentpan's reminder of the Obama camp calling out the Clinton campaign as racist is surely a doosy, the piece would have been a tad more credible and non-partisan. Reality television, however, is everything you think it is....I think...I don't watch it either.

JER 1 year, 3 months ago

I"ll certainly agree with Mr. Bouser and the comments made by scotlass49. While it is true that each election cycle in recent memory has been a little less civil than the previous one, nobody can deny that the current GOP presidential primary (the focus of Mr. Bouser's column), has lowered the bar significantly. Respondents that can only say "Oh yea, well so are you..." have no defense of the process currently taking place. I'm not going to tell a lie, like many of you have done, and say that I don't watch some of the "reality" shows on TV. There are several that I have watched and have enjoyed. Grouping all of these type programs into one lump and judging them all the same is a mistake. For every 10 bad ones, there is a good one. I would bet money that at least some of you have watched Shark Tank. If you have not, you should watch it at least once because it is right up your alley. And finally, Geoff Cutler, you provide me with another opportunity to find fault with your thought process. Telling Mr. Bouser that reality television is everything he thinks it is while claiming you don't watch it causes me to doubt the validity of your opinion or your honesty or, maybe both.

geoffcutler 1 year, 3 months ago

JER, you're exhausting. It was Mr. Bouser who said in his column that he didn't watch reality television...but then went on to use the rest of the article to say that the Republican debates are like reality television. My reiterating it was to point out, by example, that disconnect. Read slowly and carefully. Subtle irony escapes you.

MikeNC 1 year, 3 months ago

Unfortuantely, ScotLass, Dirty political campaigns have been going on since the founding of our Country. What I find offensive is the Pilot always uses a Republican situation to draw a parallel to, when it comes to Negativity. I mean forget Bill Clinton's rant on the Press giving Obama a free pass. Diane

teufelhunden 1 year, 3 months ago

Funny thing is "reality tv'" isn't reality at all. Anyone with a camera in their face can act like a cheap fool idiot.

marathonman 1 year, 3 months ago

I echo wdd101st comment; Bouser you should have left this one go. Your leftsidedness is very evident.

skylinefirepest 1 year, 3 months ago

Wow, Steve, you sure opened a right wing can of worms on this one!! I will agree with them on one thing, though...you should have mentioned the antics of Kerry, Clinton, Gore, and the rest of the Leftie clowns just to make your column "fair".

JER 1 year, 3 months ago

Yea right, Geoff. You were using "subtle irony". Just like it was subtle irony when you favored Perry, then Cain, then Gingrich, then Romney. I'm guessing today you favor Santorum unless Palin or Trump or J. Bush say they are running. At least you have your principles, you never did say you favored Paul. Nothing subtle about that.

MikeNC 1 year, 3 months ago

JER, amazing how you continuely Inject your false blanket statements. If some of say we don't watch Reality TV shows, (which some of US DON'T) we're liars. Diane

geoffcutler 1 year, 3 months ago

JER. again, you don't read very closely. Probably because you stay up all night to carry out your personal vendetta against everything that I say. In none of the articles I've written have I chosen a candidate. That's your own interpretation. Get some sleep!

dustyrhoades 1 year, 3 months ago

Keep doing what you do, wingnuts. Right now you're driving some of your own into the Obama camp:

http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/20-of-republicans-leaning-to-obama/

The latest WND/Wenzel Poll shows none of the current crop of Republican presidential candidates has solidified the base of the party, with one in five GOP voters leaning toward support of Obama in November....“The improvement in Obama’s prospects compared to the four remaining Republican challengers stems largely from two factors,” suggests pollster Fritz Wenzel. “First, Obama has largely avoided the political limelight while the GOP candidates savage each other with increasing intensity. Second, a smattering of evidence indicates that the economy is getting a little better, which helps the White House in the eyes of the voters. Secondly, the bloody fight for the Republican presidential nomination – by most estimations the nastiest GOP fight in memory – has really hurt the images of the challengers in the eyes of both Republicans and, especially, independent voters. For Republicans, each candidate carries with them now some taint that cannot be ignored.”

Read it and weep, suckers. And this isn't a poll by DailyKos or Democratic Underground. WND is about as far right as you can get. They skew so far right, you've got to assume the picture's actually worse for you.

marathonman 1 year, 3 months ago

Lugnuts would like to believe that Repubs are leaning towards Obama due to the food fight, not true. Despite what you find and print, true conservatives are determined to oust Obama and all the false propaganda that you can find will not alter them. Others, who fall in the middle likely are starting to falter but they will not send Obama back for another four years of chaos. Nay, it is all smoke and mirrors Rhodes and you fell for it like a fish to a tempting lure........

dustyrhoades 1 year, 3 months ago

Readers are invited to peruse the WorldNet Daily site, for as long as they can stand it, and decide for themselves if it's left wing. Just a look at the front page should establish its right wing bona fides.

Then one can consider just how far off into the right wing lunatic fringe marathonman has to be to call WND "lugnuts" .

MikeNC 1 year, 3 months ago

and a Wenzel Poll taken on November 7, 2011, found that almost 30% of Democrats would like to see someone other than Obama on the Democrat Ticket, go figure, Dusty Diane

dustyrhoades 1 year, 3 months ago

Go figure what? There's not going to be someone else on the ticket. And 20% of your own party is ready to jump ship, because they're sick of the con-men, serial adulterers, racist demagogues, and flip floppers your little crazy corner of Wingnuttia loves so very much. You've convinced yourself you could run Bozo the clown and win, because you're so blinded by hatred you can't see that everyone isn't as crazy as you are. So Bozos are what you get. There's not a single GOP candidate running that hasn't already given the Obama campaign enough negatives to flog them bloody with for months. Even sane Republicans (and I know a few) recognize this.

MikeNC 1 year, 3 months ago

And Dusty in the end, the same will happen with the Left as will with the Right, we will all bite the bullet. Most of 30% of DEMOCRATS who do not want Obama, will vote Obama, AND Most the 20% of so called "boat jumping" Republicans will Vote Republican. Blinded by HATE and CRAZY, what were you looking in a mirror as you posted? Diane

dustyrhoades 1 year, 3 months ago

Once again, Diane can't come up with anything more original that "No, YOU are!"

Boooooring.

moonchild7 1 year, 3 months ago

This all started with Richard Nixon. On Sept. 16, 1968 he appeared on Rowan&Martin's LAUGH-IN. According to the show's creator George Schlatter: "Hubert Humphrey declined the invitation to appear and he later said that not doing it may have cost him the election. While Nixon said that for the rest of his life he felt that appearing on LAUGH-IN is what got him elected." So Mr. Bouser, it's the Republicans fault with a very weird "assist" from the Leftie LAUGH-IN bunch. I was 15 when that show came on the tv and I watched it that very nite. I wasn't old enough to vote then but his appearance would have never influenced me to vote for him. Who would have voted for him simply because he went on a Comedy TV Show? Who? It's been downhill ever since.

Nezumi 1 year, 3 months ago

MC - I can't even imagine Nixon on laugh-in. Probably the funniest thing he could have said was "if I'm elected president, I'll begin rapprochement with China" - who would have believed that?

MikeNC 1 year, 3 months ago

Dusty, Maybe if YOU weren't SOS, stuck on Stupid with Race, Hate and Crazy, we could all Move On and open the avenuse to some sensible dialouge. Diane