Stop Worshiping Politicians
There is no upside to substance-free admiration of this variety—and it paved the way for Trump
Alexander the Great was the first famous person in the modern sense of the word. He cultivated his persona. He wanted everyone to know his name—to be recognized, lauded, and worshiped as if he were Dionysus himself. He was one of the most prolific and skilled conquerors in history, amassing an empire that stretched for 3,000 miles. But it wasn’t enough for his actions to speak for themselves. He wanted something beyond them. He wanted sculptures and paintings. He was building a brand.
Alexander died in 323 BC, so we’ve been dealing with fame, putting people on pedestals of varying heights for quite some time. In America, and in many other countries around the world, we do it to politicians constantly. We celebritize them. We do not view them as public servants, but famous people, baptized in the same waters as actors and musicians.
There is no upside to substance-free admiration of this variety, especially when it comes to government officials.
We did it with Barack Obama. We deified him. He is forever a walking, talking Shepard Fairey “Hope” poster. Nobody ever seems to mention that he ordered 10x as many drone strikes as his predecessor, that he used the U.S. military to assassinate an American citizen and his 16 year old son abroad setting a very dangerous precedent, that he supported Saudi Arabia’s brutal decimation of Yemen. In 2018, regarding the fossil fuel boom in America Obama said, “That whole, suddenly America’s like the biggest oil producer and the biggest gas, that was me people.” Obama should be lauded for his varied and significant accomplishments, admired and looked up to for myriad reasons, but to wash over his mistakes and bad decisions, to paint him as an unwavering beacon of peace and environmental justice is just plain inaccurate—and it doesn’t help move things in the right direction. We have to criticize those who lead us. We have to hold them accountable.
According to the branding, Ronald Reagan is the stately gentleman who believed in the shining city on a hill, who loudly declared, “Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” On the right, he’s become the ideal political figure, but he’s a product of central casting more than anything else. As a populace, we tend to inflate the aspects that fit into the brand we’ve been sold, and disregard the rest. The Iran-Contra Affair is rarely mentioned. People like William Barr, who supported pardons for many of those involved are still able to obtain high positions in government. That fact that Reagan played a major role in ushering in the wave of mass incarceration, or that Reaganomics decimated the middle class and is largely to blame for the obscene income inequality in the United States are pesky details that don’t fit the predetermined narrative.
These people work for us, and their decisions influence millions of lives and set precedents for the future. This doesn’t mean that we have to hold them to an unattainable level of perfection, but by granting them that perfection as an entity separate from, or in some cases in direct opposition to, their actions, we are absolving them of accountability entirely. We are reinforcing a fame first approach that treats policy and substance as an afterthought.
Recently there was footage of Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris getting off a private jet wearing Converse Chuck Taylor’s, and it prompted thousands of Tweets and pieces in the Washington Post, Fortune, USA Today, Elle, Huff Post and many others. It’s fine to appreciate her fashion choices, but far too often we conflate aesthetics and branding with actual policies and goals. Articles like these might seem harmless, but they’re not. They aid in further separating the candidate from the famous figure. You see it with the left side of the Democratic Party too—with AOC and Bernie most notably. They too are now brands: famous, molded figures. It's great to be passionate when fighting for a politician you believe in, and to support him/her in any way you can. But you can do that without turning them into a figure of worship.
It’s this type of fame-first political admiration that set the stage for someone like Donald Trump to win a presidential election. Nowhere is this practice of surface-level, brand-centric worship more evident than with Trump. He is the end stage of political worship, a charismatic carnival barker, a figure so devoid of substance, of coherence, of eloquence and specifics, of policy and direction, that the only way to appreciate him is as a blob of fame, a bulbous, undulating, nationalistic entity that has always, it seems, been famous for being famous.
Trump’s followers are obsessed with him to a degree that we have not quite seen before with politicians. Just watch this video of UFC fighter and vocal Trump worshiper, Colby Covington speaking to the president on the phone after winning a bout. Covington says, “You gave me the dragon energy when you shook my hand (…) it doesn’t matter if King Kong was in front of me, I was not going to lose after getting to shake your hand.”
What?
During the 2016 presidential campaign Trump famously said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” A poll conducted by the Public Policy Center found that he was right. 45% of those surveyed said they would still approve of him if he shot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue.
Trump has found it so easy to propagandize the American populace because we are always primed and ready to be propagandized. It was only a matter of time before the fame of a politician and the policies of that politician merged entirely into one entity that forsook the latter for the former.
These people are public servants, not rock stars. If we treat them as rock stars we’re giving them a pass; we’re not doing our job. Support the candidates you believe in in any way you can: canvass, phone bank, volunteer, all that. But if that candidate wins, don’t sit back and treat them as if they reached the summit. That’s the base-camp. That is when the work begins—for them, and for us. Worshiping politicians disincentivizes action and progress. So don’t do it.
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In Case You Missed It
Myself and producers/filmmakers/editors Aaron Vazquez and Brian “Sene” Marc put together a little PSA urging people to vote, but not JUST vote.
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Orgs to Support
(If you have the means, speak with your wallet)
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