The Bread-and-Circus Stage of American Decline

by By Nick Catoggio, The Dispatch, Published July 19, 2024 - ..... 

A few hours before Trump’s speech, CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Sen. Marco Rubio what he expected from that evening’s address.

Rubio pointed to the assassination attempt as evidence of the gravity of this moment. “At least in my view of it, it sort of reminds us that at the end … we’re not in the entertainment business, right?” he said.

Define “we,” Marco.

Of the eight people who immediately preceded Trump onstage on Thursday evening, fully half were entertainers. Tucker Carlson is a storyteller; Hulk Hogan is a pro wrestler; Dana White runs UFC; Kid Rock is Kid Rock. The person who spoke before Carlson was Alina Habba, who nowadays merely moonlights as an attorney while working her full-time job as a right-wing media “personality.”

The Republican Party is in the entertainment business. It didn’t used to be, but there are a lot of things it didn’t used to be that it is now.

There’s an obvious method to the madness of having figures like Hogan and White soak up primetime television minutes that would have otherwise gone to elder statesmen in a party whose base hates many of its own leaders. Working-class voters (and not just white ones) are Trump’s bread and butter; watching Hulk Hogan hulk out over “Trumpamania” surely stands a better chance of moving votes than watching Mitch McConnell burble insincere platitudes about a nominee he hates.

That may be especially true among the lowest of low-information voters inclined to give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a look, as my colleague John McCormack speculated yesterday. The mix of cranks like Tucker and tough-guy showmen who cater to America’s “bro” demographic was aimed directly at the Joe Rogan fan base, which is sizable.

But understanding the convention line-up purely in strategic terms is reductive, I think.

It’s possible that the likes of Hogan and White were invited for no better reason than that Trump famously enjoys wrestling and ultimate fighting—and he has for decades. The American right is a monarchy now, and kings have always had jesters. It’s the job of a royal court to present silly amusements for His Majesty’s entertainment.

The likelier truth, though, is that a guy who figured out that you could become president by becoming a television game-show host first is following his instincts by treating politics as entertainment.

Consider the most notable line from Trump’s speech, which wasn’t about his near-assassination, Joe Biden, or the 2020 election. It was this: .... 

Pitted against a beauty-pageant promoter, Joe Biden’s party doesn’t stand a chance. (continue reading)

Rod's Comment: I agree. And Nick did not even mention the porn star entertainer. 

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