It feels unsettling to use a "Game of Thrones" quote to title this, but the way the 2016 presidential election is going, it seems like perfectly fitting comparison.
This election will go down as the most interesting, entertaining, unnerving and downright strangest run for office in American history. The story started with seven candidates: a bona fide, multi-million reality television star, a former First Lady and Secretary of State with heavy baggage, a seemingly un-corrupted, grassroots democratic socialist, the brother of a former president, a conservative extremist, a representative for the Latino community and a retired neurosurgeon who once separated conjoined twins.
It sounds like the set-up for a great drama, but it isn't. It's what we've got coming to us in our real-life White House and with the race narrowing down to a Clinton vs. Trump showdown, all eyes are glued in to see what the finale has to offer.
In high school, politics was usually a dull and dry topic that normally resulted in a headache and a brush-off. Why read about politics when you can read a 200-word article on the latest Kardashian story and still feel caught up with the current media news? Things change though when the lines start to blur, and the lines have been blurring more and more as history progresses.
Entertainment has always been looked at as a way for the upper class to control the masses. In Ancient Rome starting around 122 B.C. the political strategy known as "Panem et Circensus," or "Bread and Circuses," exploded onto the social scene as a way to the appease the masses. Food, public baths, gladiators, exotic animals, chariot races, sports competition and theater were all used by emperors to keep the public peaceful and give them a chance to share their voices through performance.
The history is a dark one though, and not all full of fun and games for the unlucky ones. In 107 A.D., Roman Emperor Trajan celebrated his victory over the Dacians by organizing 123 days of festivities where over 10,000 gladiators slaughtered 11,000 wild animals — Trajan walked away from these battles with a sum of 10,000,000 kilos of gold, 20 million kilos of
silver and 500,000 slaves.
The majority of these gladiators were also slaves and prisoners of war. The games were often so bloody and violent that emperors such as Caligula (37-41 A.D.) sent people from the public with cut-out tongues into the ring when all the gladiators were wiped out.
While it's hard to envision our presidential candidates going to such extremes to distract the public through entertainment, this election proves to be different.
Let's look at Trump's rise to power and bizarre adoration. Mark Peysha from Alternet does a great job of breaking down the five steps Trump took to gain the popularity he has today through the social media and entertainment factors. But I want to look more into his debate tactics.
Some of things Trump has said during debates are bizarre, shocking and overall childish and surprising from someone looking to be our next president. We don't expect our future president to be making comments like:
"Sorry, there is no STAR on the stage tonight!”
"Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!"
And my personal favorite, "Look at those hands, are they small hands? And, (Republican rival Marco Rubio) referred to my hands: 'If they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee."
What are these entertaining statements from this presidential hopeful lacking? Well, politics.
Sure, they are entertaining enough. People want to see drama, because that's what attracts our attention in our fast-paced digital age. Seeing Trump call out Ted Cruz and his marriage on Twitter is distasteful, it shocks us and it keeps us talking, as does when he talks about penis size during a broadcast debate.
The politics and issues that actually affect us, the common people, gets lost in the drama though.
It's happening in the Democratic side as well. We are obsessed with Hillary Clinton's email scandal and the name Monica Lewinsky, along with Clinton's marriage is still being tossed around in discussions about whether or not she will be a good president.
How does this affect us? Does it even? Well, yes. When we are more focused on who can be the most entertaining the issues get lost in the mess of drama. As educated citizens we shouldn't fall into this game because that is what it is. A political game among the powerful to lead the mindless sheep to the slaughter.
