Political Theatre category archive
Playing Trump 0
The Booman sums up the attraction:
Twilight of the Elites 2
He has a point.
Lost in Echo Canyon 0
Michael Smerconish is a rarity among conservative commentators, in that he does not toe the wingnut line and has the unmitigated gall, the gall, I say, to think for himself from time to time, has qualms.
Follow the link for his answer.
You’ve Heard about the Cat in the Hat? 0
Now learn about the cat in the bag.
Idols of the Kings 0
In the Roanoke Times, John Freivalds takes issue with the deification of the “Founding Fathers” (emphasis added–follow the link for the rest):
And Ulysses Grant declared “it is preposterous that the people of one generation can lay down the best and only rules of government for all who are to come after them.”
Bordewich, writing in the July 5 Wall Street Journal, adds: “Does it really matter if politicians revise the Founding Father story to suit their own ends? .?.?. Opportunistic misuses of the fathers disregards political debate, militates against compromise and disguises lack of thought behind a veil of propaganda.”
The Fix Is In . . . 0
. . . and Shaun Mullen analyzes the fixers. Here’s a bit:
The truth few dare to speak is that politicians and the media have become so mutually reliant.
Politicians rely on the media to grease the skids of the primary campaign-convention-general campaign cycle (as well as performing side jobs like aiding and abetting anxious Republicans who want Trump gone by repeatedly predicting without a shred of evidence that he soon will be) and the media relies on politicians to justify their existence, indirectly remunerate them for their coverage and reward them with celebrity and stature.
The consequence is that the relationship between pols and media is so incestuous that they have become intolerant of the people who sustain the complex. That’s us. It’s all about them, and pious political pandering and lofty journalistic ideals to the contrary, it hasn’t been about us for a long time.
Read it.
Slam-Dog Millionaire 0
At TPM, Michael Maiello suggests that Donald Trump’s campaign tactics are heavily derived from that school of performance art, the WWE.
I reckon that ought to sound outlandish, but it doesn’t. Not at all.
The Candidates Debate 0
Daniel Ruth surveys the aftermath. He is less than sanguine.
You know you are in deep trouble when former governors George Pataki of New York and Jim Gilmore of Virginia based their pitches on infusing “new blood” into their campaigns. Pataki is 70. Gilmore is 65.
Follow the link for the rest of his post mortem. Also, don’t miss the review at Margaret and Helen’s place.
Indoctri-Nation 0
Republicans give props to propaganda.
The Future: Live It, or Live with It* 0
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*With apologies to Firesign Theatre.
The Candidates Debate 0
I’ll read about it tomorrow. Tonight, I intend to do something useful and productive.
Watching a banty cock fight is neither.
Via Job’s Anger.