Sud de France 3.7: American Politics as Kabuki Theater

It’s rather pleasant today here in the South of France, partly cloudy with temperatures around 60F. Lovely weather that hardly feels like the end of fall to a Northern bred North American. Yesterday was November 1^st, All Saints (Toussaints) Day and as in many Catholic countries it’s a day to go to the cemetery and remember those who have passed. 

But that was yesterday and today is America’s midterm elections. The date got me thinking about politics and how I grew up in politics. 

My dad was a district “captain” for our neighborhood in the Bronx. All Saints Day was often the day before Election Day, we didn’t go to the cemetery to visit the dead, instead visited the living-the electorate.  My dad would drive his 1948 black Pontiac sedan slowly though the neighborhood, flashing the car lights and honking the horn and I’d pass out little voter choice cards to anyone within arm’s reach. The cards urged people to vote for the Democratic Party the next day. Yes, in those days you voted for the party and not simply for the candidate. The total cost of a Congressional campaign was a few hundred dollars for the cards. 

But what the hell, the Congressman and other elected officials were people you knew. They’d turn up at weddings and funerals and you knew them by their first names. Who needed to see them in a campaign ad on a Black and White TV set?

Well, I’m rather glad to be far away from America’s political kabuki theater and 24/7 news cycle coverage. It’s sad that people have to vote for people they hardly know on the basis of bizarre TV ads. I mean how believable is an ad that says “vote for Tom Brown or the world will end and the Muslims will impose Sharia law.” 

In New York the political parties understood real grassroots politics. You supported the people in your District. All politics was local. At Thanksgiving and Christmas we’d fill the Pontiac up with turkeys bought by the local Democratic “club” and deliver them to neighbors who were having hard times. I even came to believe that helping a neighbor was a really good kind of political corruption.

Since those days in New York I’ve worked on a lot of campaigns as a photographer and over the years watched politics change. I discovered that no one who got elected to office ever became poorer. A shabbily dressed “man of the people” would inevitable turn into a Brooks Brothers suit in a few months.

Part of it is about the power relationship. Campaigners want your vote. They will kiss a baby’s ass and promise two kitchens in every house. They will swear to throw out the rascals- you name ‘em- and clean up government.

The 2008 Campaign got people excited but now they've lost heart.

 Anything, just please, please vote for me. They will stand on street corners and shake hands until their hand’s ready to fall off. Once in office though the situation flips. (And trust me despite any of pledges of the TEA party or the left this is how it will be.) The people who were begged for their vote have to sign up to see their representative. And if you are lucky enough to get to see the elected one you discover that they can’t do much for you. 

“Well you know that just how things are,” they say or, “I’ll see if one of my people can help you.”

It’s all a kabuki theater now with grotesque figures in painted masks playing out a well rehearsed script, feigning deep feelings and wildly gesturing and it’s successful because it works on that cool medium of TV. A medium that needs big gestures and sound bites. 

On the Right and Left, American politicians have lost touch with their own communities. I’ve seen it happen to Republicans and Democrats. The cheerful newsletter of accomplishment has replaced the presence of an actual person.

Maybe things would be better if politicians were required to attend constituents’ weddings and funerals or to deliver turkeys at Thanksgiving to families in need or every once in a while to sit with a foreclosed family as their stuff is thrown out on a sidewalk.

At least the French are cynical about politics and have little expectation that anything a politician does will improve things. That’s why they go out into the streets.

A humble patriotic gesture

And it’s no wonder Americans are angry. They’ve been left behind. Today no matter who wins--Democrat, Republican, Progressive or TEA party-- the kabuki play which is bigger than individuals and go on. Same show, same costumes, just with a different cast. 

P.S. The results are in and the Republicans have"taken" the House and some Senate seats. I'll bet that an awful lot of those 'rebel' TEA party types will get their Brooks Brother suits and their professional staffs and their media training in no time at all. 

As G. Flaubert wrote, "Stupidity is unshakable." Damn right.

  

text and photos ©2010 Steve Meltzer