Send in the Clowns: The Spectacle of Modern Politics

This summer, the Huffington Post declared that they would stop covering Donald Trump as serious news. While they would still cover his campaign, the coverage would go in their entertainment section rather than their news section. When explaining their decision, the editors wrote, “Our reason is simple: Trump’s campaign is a sideshow. We won’t take the bait.”

It’s true. Trump is a sideshow who embarrasses even the notoriously gaffe-prone Republican Party. He’s spent the campaign spouting ridiculous soundbites—such as his plan to “build a wall around Mexico”—and getting into fights on Twitter. Basically, Trump is a clownish buffoon made serious only by the potential impact of his bigotry—think your awful uncle, but with a geopolitical megaphone.

But he’s not an outlier. In an era of fast media, politicians are the new entertainers. Watch Barack Obama’s selfie stick shenanigans and online contribution to the “Thanks, Obama” meme. Witness the worldwide Rob Ford spectacle, where Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in an attempt to clear his name. Even the famously meme-hating Vladimir Putin has gotten in on the action via gratuitous shirtless pictures and videos of himself working out.

Let’s be clear: this is not a new phenomenon. Politicians have always been performers, and politicians like Ronald Reagan (a former actor) have always known how to use the media to their advantage. Our parents’ generation lapped up salacious stories involving political leaders such as the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal or Maggie and Pierre Trudeau’s marriage. At its heart, politics is the kind of bread-and-circuses spectacle that “civilized” people like us can appreciate.

The difference today is the speed of the media cycle and the 24-hour information superhighway with its constant stream of news. The reality of the information age is that news stories spawn and die out quickly. Funny or “cool” stories rise to (and fall from) prominence fast, with limited time for people to reflect on the nuances of the issue or the figures involved.

One of the best examples is Obama’s “Thanks, Obama” video. In the US, Tea Partiers’ sarcastic thanking of Obama for America’s perceived problems has turned “Thanks, Obama” into a popular meme. Obama’s response to this consists of a video showing the president trying unsuccessfully to dunk a cookie in milk, then looking at the camera and saying “Thanks, Obama.” It’s wonderfully recursive—here, the joke is flipped on its head and the memed-upon becomes the memer.

But here the presentation is a distraction from serious issues. Obama can portray himself as the social media president and use Twitter to support Ahmed Mohamed, a Texas high school student victimized by Islamophobic profiling, while ignoring how his own government’s drone strikes target Muslims globally. Putin can use his strongman persona to distract people from Russia’s decidedly weak economy. And Trump’s outrageous displays make it harder for us to notice the quiet, deadly bigotry infecting the whole Republican Party. The 24-hour news circus means that serious news can slip through the cracks.

So what do we do to fix this whole mess? It’s doubtful that other media outlets will take the Huffington Post’s route and refuse to take political shenanigans seriously. And it’s unlikely that we can give up the fun and shiny side of politics—our brains just aren’t wired the right way. What we can do is inform ourselves about political issues and make our own decisions about what’s important. After all, the circus may be in town, but that’s no reason to hop in the clown car. inform ourselves about political issues and make our own decisions about what’s important. After all, the circus may be in town, but that’s no reason to hop in the clown car.