Politics And Mass Media
Musings on American politics before and after the advent of mass media.
Everybody intuitively understands that the advent of mass media (the radio, and especially the television) radically shifted the dynamic of politics. The advent of the radio and television broadcast was comparable to the invention of the printing press in a lot of ways. With the radio, you no longer had to be literate or rely on word of mouth to keep up to date on contemporary politics. The personal radio and the household television set also brought the voice of America’s politicians directly into your own home, making politics personal in a way that it never had been before.
This is the intuitive understanding of most people and even academics, but it is incomplete. When historians and “political scientists” discuss the ways in which mass media affected political discourse, the historic 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate (the first ever televised presidential debate) naturally finds itself at the center of discussion. The result of such analysis is always the same: Kennedy was young and energetic, Nixon (who had just been released from the hospital) was sickly and weak.
Throughout the 60-minute program set in a Chicago TV studio, the 43-year-old Kennedy “looked to be radiating health,” said presidential historian Robert Gilbert. Kennedy wore a dark suit and had a wide smile and vivid tan.
Nixon, on the other hand, appeared pale and a bit listless. He had just gotten out of the hospital, where he had lost weight after a knee injury. In a gray, ill-fitting suit and hastily added pancake makeup, Nixon looked – even if he did not necessarily sound – a pale shadow of the aggressive, composed senator from Massachusetts.
“I was listening to it on the radio coming into Lincoln, Kansas, and I thought Nixon was doing a great job,” former Sen. Bob Dole, the GOP’s 1996 presidential nominee, recalled in a PBS interview. “Then I saw the TV clips the next morning, and he … didn’t look well. Kennedy was young and articulate and … wiped him out.”1
Nixon’s sickly complexion and demeanor were highly unusual for him, as he was normally known to be quite boisterous himself. But he had only recently regained his health and was not yet back to his normal self. But because of this, politicians became keenly aware of their appearance, to such a degree that Narcissus himself would blush. They began to try and control every aspect of their appearance to an obsessive degree. Always reading off of scripts, every move choreographed beforehand, all debates strictly moderated to be kept as “tame and professional” as possible. But in doing so, they entirely missed the mark. The message of the 1960 debate went over their collective heads entirely. In their attempts at avoiding weakness on the national stage, they lost their authenticity and thus their vitality. In a twist of irony, they became every bit as weak as Nixon appeared in the 1960 debate. Politics became more of a matter of carefully orchestrated theatrics than an authentic human experience.
From 1960 onwards, politics was dominated by smooth talking men in perfect suits who seemed incapable of making mistakes. They were always level-headed, professional, and suave. The strongest politicians were the ones who could play into this perception the best, like Reagan and Obama. They were charming and funny, but in a dry “refined” way.
Then along came Trump, who shook the very foundations of American politics to its core. Or did he? Did he shake the foundations of American politics, or did he merely uncover them? Trump was something of a political maverick, but despite (or perhaps because of) his extensive history in television he knew what people actually wanted. Trump didn’t cast off the shackles of contemporary political conformity, he never even put them on. This was his strength and this is what completely blindsided the political establishment. There was basically nothing that the media could throw against Trump that would turn the people against him. He laughed off most criticism, while other hit pieces fell apart due to their own absurdity.
As the establishment floundered about trying to shoot down Trump at any opportunity, Trump just laughed. And the people usually laughed with him. because frankly, it was hilarious watching mainstream media have a mental breakdown over TWO SCOOPS OF ICE CREAM!!!!!!!
Enough of that though, back to the topic at hand.
American politics had gotten so caught up in its own rules of conformity and showmanship that they forgot the human element. People want vitality, and that must be authentic. Vitality is not something that can be artificially created; people can sense its inauthenticity.
This critical misreading of the 1960 debate may be the greatest faux pas the American political establishment has ever committed. This is what allowed Trump to sweep the country off its feet. Yet, Trump was far from the first to understand the nature of American politics. In fact, a century or two ago Trump would have probably been a very poor candidate, all things considered. He simply would not have had the advantage he has now; he would just be a wealthy New Yorker trying his hand at politics (a dime a dozen back then).
In fact, Trump’s political career almost reads as if he were just copying 18th century presidents. Maybe he is; maybe that’s why he’s often compared to Andrew Jackson. His campaign style shares strong similarities with many of the earlier presidents, especially the “log cabin campaign tactics” of the 19th century.
The 19th century was full of campaigns where presidential candidates tried to conjure images of “two regular guys sitting in a log cabin sipping hard cider and doing what was right for the common man.” as Walter Borneman put it.2 This imagery is specifically designed to evoke ideas of the rustic frontier; of simple, but good, men. Some degree of this was required of all political candidates in the 19th century, and Trump has done a lot to revive this idea.
For example, the infamous fast food White House dinner photo when Trump provided McDonald’s for the Clemson University Tigers:
Or the more recent McDonald’s order during his visit to East Palestine Ohio:
Regardless of your thoughts on McDonald’s, it is undeniable that ol’ Ronald has become a popular choice for America’s diet, especially amongst the youth. It is so simple and so quintessentially American that the act is genius. It speaks volumes to Trump’s down to Earth nature and how relatable he is, which is juxtaposed with the media’s insistence that he is an elitist dirtbag. Populism in its purest form.
Now compare this to the following excerpts:
By election day, just in case persuasive arguments on the stump had not been enough, Polk paid for “twenty-three gallons of cider, brandy, and whiskey in one election district alone.”3
When he [Colonel Thomas S. Meacham] had finished, the monster weighed 1,400 pounds. It was four feet in diameter and two feet thick. The cheese was encircled by a "national belt," representing all the states, and on it were inscribed the words "Our Union, it must be preserved." A team of twenty-four gray horses drew the flagdraped wagon which bore the behemoth and carried it on the triumphant journey to Washington, where it was formally presented to President Jackson. Apparently, the President kept it in the vestibule of the White House where it was cured for nearly two years! Visitors must have gotten quite a start when they entered the mansion. Then, to get rid of it, Jackson directed that an invitation in the form of a public notice in the Globe be extended to all citizens to come to the White House between 1 and 3 p.m. on February 22 — Washington's birthday — to sample the magnificent cheddar. It was one of the great levees of all time. The President, cabinet members, congressmen, diplomats, "the court, the fashion, the beauty of Washington," and, of course, "the People" (with a capital "P" as the Globe always wrote it) all attended. "All you heard was cheese; all you smelled was cheese." The carpets were slippery with cheese, pockets were filled with balls of the stuff, and the very air for half a mile around was permeated with the aroma of cheese. The mob demolished the cheddar within two hours and left only a few scraps to grace the presidential table.4
Clearly, these men knew what the people wanted. People eat this kind of stuff up, literally. It’s endearing, it’s novel, it’s human.
A few weeks ago,
had this to say:I have to disagree with him somewhat here. I agree that Trump does not actively paint himself as a “log cabin candidate” in the same way you saw 19th century candidates like Andrew Jackson, but I don’t think he is always leaning in to the “larger than life” thing either. Trump is simply being himself. I don’t really even think Trump is all that elitist, I mean the guy basically lives off of fast food and diet Coke. Not exactly high society fine dining there. I think he is just being genuine. It’s really not any different from how you would expect the average Joe to act if they were given billions of dollars. They would want to live like kings, but at the same time they probably wouldn’t change their diet or any of the things they liked before they were rich.
Yes, Trump lives in apartments that are basically solid gold, but he is also very keenly aware of what the average person is like. In a lot of ways, he is not very different and he doesn’t try to be. He is more just an average guy who just happen to be fabulously wealthy. More importantly, he’s someone you could have a beer with. That is what people like.
This is how American politics was before the 1960 debate, when everybody became terrified of coming off as weak and so they all became sterile geezers in suits. They were larger than life, yes, but it was not due so much to some intrinsic quality that set them apart but rather because they represented something greater. They represented the collective unconscious of America; the zeitgeist crystalized into one man. That is what made them great. That is why the best presidents before the invention of mass media were almost mythic figures who personified some aspect of what it meant to be American, while the best modern presidents are just charming guys in suits.
This is also how every great leader before America was even founded succeeded, and it will undoubtedly be how every great leader in the future will succeed.
When knox posts, I sit my chosen ass down and LISTEN!
Sup. Niggaaaaaa. Wassup in the hizzouse.