Merging Politics And Celebrity Is Bad For Democracy

[Ocelot II]

At Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing last March, after Senator Ted Cruz pursued a characteristically belligerent line of questioning, he leaned back in his chair and did something particularly unworthy of the seriousness of the occasion: He pulled out his phone and searched for his own name (in this case on Twitter). Cruz wanted to see how much attention his crude performance had attracted.

This moment of digital vanity—really only exceptional in that we were able to witness it—is evidence of one of the defining political facts of our era: Perhaps more than ever before, notoriety can offer shortcuts to political power. This is the phenomenon that Donald Trump rode to the White House. It’s what has Herschel Walker within a hair’s breadth of a seat in the U.S. Senate. To hell with thoughtfulness and principles and civic virtue—the thing that matters most is whether or not you’re trending.

Poets, philosophers, and historians have studied fame and leadership since time immemorial, and American political scientists have long noted the connection between name recognition and electoral success. Politicians hoping to win office or increase their influence leverage the national stage to improve their visibility. They use televised hearings, sensational rhetoric in stump speeches and rallies, speaking filibusters, and political stunts (cue governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott trafficking immigrants) to draw attention to themselves and fill the news cycle with their names. To the ambitious, these things might be considered necessary evils for ascending to, or keeping, elected office.

But it’s critically importantly to recognize that chasing fame for the sake of power is corrosive of our system of democracy. Rather than leveraging a celebrity turn to improve one’s ability to shape the governing process and its outcomes, for too many fame becomes an end in itself. And given our politics-as-entertainment media landscape, elected office—increasingly the nation’s brightest and choicest stage—is considered a means of furthering one’s fame.

The rest: https://www.thebulwark.com/merging-politics-and-celebrity-is-bad-for-democracy/

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. I agree

The damn narcissists need to be banned from running for office. I think banning people who have felonies from running would do a lot to hobble the monsters. I bet that the ones looking up thier names are narcissists if not they are destructively vain and there entirely for the wrong reasons.

[live love laugh]

2. "Say my name" -- Beyonc's song title sums up the phenomenon.