Reality TV (cont’d.)

Jimmy Breslin, who is not easily perplexed, seemed perplexed yesterday by the voters of California, who seemed intent on electing:

… Arnold Schwarzenegger — who has to deny he admired Nazis. Anytime you're in a political campaign in America and you have to deny Hitler, that is a good time to check into someplace for a rest.

What Breslin didn't account for is that political elections — and actual, day-to-day governance and statecraft — are not merely broadcast on TV. They are TV. Voters are not asked to choose between candidates, but between the stars of a long-running TV show they will be asked to watch for the next four years.

I commented on this in an earlier post, noting that such an interpretation of our democracy was "wholly, irredeemably cynical." It also seems uncomfortably accurate:

The presidency is a four-year television program carried on almost every channel and every network. Like other popular reality shows, such as American Idol, the public is given nominal input into the content of the show. We're allowed to vote every four years instead of every week, but we do get to pick the star of the show.

And that, really, is what we do. Regardless of a candidate's policies, qualifications, philosophy of governance or lack thereof, Americans know one indisputable fact about the person they elect as president — we'll be watching this man on television for the next four years.

This is the biggest show on television. And unlike other broadcasts, it cannot be avoided. The inescapable daily fact of every election is that we are selecting the star of the TV program we'll all be watching — like it or not — for years to come. …

Like everyone else — and perhaps like Arnold Schwarzenegger himself — I know almost nothing about the man's political principles or his stances on the issues. That leaves me nothing to judge him by other than his character, which seems repugnant.

But he is entertaining. And that, more than anything, seems to have been the deciding factor in California's recall election, where voters behaved more like an audience than an electorate.

Much is made of the voters' "outrage," but there has been precious little sign of that during the past 70 days. Turnout for yesterday's vote may actually have been less than the turnout for the 2002 vote — featuring the dynamic Gray Davis and the scintillating Bill Simon.

Outraged? Nah. They were just bored.