The Continuing Trivialization of American Politics

Yesterday I noted that The Nation magazine was beginning a sex column called "Carnal Knowledge." This column undoubtedly will explore the intersection of sex and politics in all of its myriad forms, and represents, as I also stated, Neil Postman's view, as expressed in his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," that serious discourse in American society is increasingly driven by entertainment values, especially by television. Pop culture, for better or worse, rules America, not knowledge, wisdom or expertise. To even possess the such taints one as an "elitist."

This explains, to varying degrees, the success of Fox News and why cable programs on MSNBC have become successful with conservatives; they adhere to entainment values while promoting a conservative agenda. But as Salon's Glenn Greenwald has noted this has also meant that the nation's political press has tended to focus on petty, personality aspects of politics, especially in regard to defining Democrats in unflattering terms--particularly the menfolk of that party as essentially pussywhipped.

Recall the constant replay of the video of John Edward's mussing his hair, or the inane commentary voice by Chris Matthews about Barack Obama's bowling skills or the fact that he asked for OJ instead of coffee while in a diner. Or Ann Coulter referring to Edwards as a "faggot." Or Maureen Dowd calling Obama "Obambi." Or the number of items discussing Hillary Rodham Clinton's laughter, cleavage, hair style, etc.

Stating the obvious, American politics, more than ever before, is essentially personality, not policy, driven.

"What drives politics is celebrity," Wypijewski told [ MarketWatch's Jon Friedman ] during a phone conversation. "What drives celebrity is sex appeal."

Yesterday when it was reported that the dark prince of American punditry, Robert Novak, had hit a pedestrian, ThinkProgress.org ran a piece on it. However, what caught my eye was that TMZ, the celebrity-based website had something on it. Now that site runs a section called "Celebrity Justice," and it's based on the foibles of the rich and famous' run-ins with the law, and how they tend to escape John Law's grip unlike common mortals.

Now, none of these is of much importance, but TMZ, which broadcasts in the DC area on a local Fox TV affiliate, has been musing about doing a similiar show on the nation's political class in Washington, DC. What this would probably mean is the further trivialization of American politics, with paparrazzi chasing around the nation's politicos and getting transgressive shots of their peccadilloes, which then becomes the stuff of chatter for the nation's chatterheads who influence, if not control, the agenda of the nation's political narrative.

Now, I'm not arguing that our political class ought to be isolated from reporters duly reporting on their conduct when it affects their jobs, as in the case of former NY's governon Eliot Spitzer's serial dalliance with call girls. But what is increasingly happening on the left, right and center is the use of sex and the reporting of sex-driven issues to occlude the more important issues of the public. Let's face it; sex sells, but do you want it constantly in your face?

The left, especially the academic left, has made a cottage industry of talking about "transgressing boundaries," and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has had a history and practice of titillation in some of its holdings. If the boundaries separating politics from sex hasn't totally collapsed, the Nation's sex cloumn, TMZ's proposed Washington DC show, the MSM's prurient interest in sex all tend to point to the constant trivialization of American politics.

What this form of trivialization also underscores is a passive-aggressive schadenfreude in which the sexual foilbles of the political is exposed, but no action, except watching TV, is taken to combat detrimental policies.

Increasingly, politics is treated as another part of the media's spectacle, and politicians as merely another form of "celebrities." Or as some have noted, "Politics is for people too ugly for Hollywood."