"The Waldo Moment" is a production by Black Mirror that in a lot of ways reflects directly to the U.S presidential election that would be a radical change to the United States no matter who won. Even though both main candidates were very different either winner would have set the stage of a new America.
Waldo is a fictional character made by a television company, used at first as the "comic relief" during the elections, much like our new president, Donald Trump, seemed like a joke at first, but turned into a reality.
The main similarities between a blue animated bear and a millionaire running for president could not in another situation be evident, but Waldo resonated with a lot of us by his vulgar language and lack of knowledge about any politics, much like rookie politician Trump. At the rate that Waldo was gaining popularity for being an entertainer, Trump rapidly gained followers for the same reason. People don't care, they don't care about the real matters that a president is supposed to handle, or in Waldo's case, a member of Parliament.
The public is tired of year by year having to pretend that they care about these matters and pretend that the politicians running for any office whether it be national or local care about their constituents or citizens. Politics have become such a joke that a blue bear can influence people into violent actions, and a single man can bring out the racist, homophobic, misogynist inside of people.
The winner of the presidential election is selected by the electoral college vote, which is supposed to be based on the popular vote, but depending on the number of electoral votes each state has, sometimes the two do not line up.
This election has been only one of the few times when the popular vote did not match up with the electoral college votes, which is due in part that the other candidate did not win the votes of the states with the most electoral votes, which yes, it means that some states matter more to the candidates depending on the number of electoral votes they have.What does this mean to the states with lower population ? Well it's not that the president-to-be doesn't care about us, just that we are not as important when it comes to catering for us or states like California, we all know 11 votes won't matter as much as 55 votes out of 538 when trying to campaign or win a re-election.
In a few words, one could say that the elections are rigged, in more than just the votes for the most populated states, which turns U.S politics into a game for most people, a game that decides the future of our country. This process has become so corrupt that we all basically know what's gonna happen, and we decide to either play along or vote in protest, much like the people that voted for Harambe, a martyr, and a beloved meme for millennials, who for some their first time voting was between a corrupt inside politician and a walking meme.
3 comments:
I think it's interesting that you bring up the electoral college in this issue where we relate our election to Waldo's. Our election relied on the electoral college to decide our president rather than popular vote, unlike most elections where the two align. Although it did not reflect the popular vote, I think is a little hypercritical of you to say it is rigged. I do wish it turned out differently but our election was not rigged. Instead, it was just not reflective of the majority's feelings toward the candidates. The system is non-reliable because of the unbalance of power some states have. I agree with your frustrations caused by this unreflective system.
I agree with a lot of what you said, but I do feel that there were more similarities between the film and the 2016 election than the ones you mentioned. There were more similarities than even the ones I mentioned in my own post, and I mentioned quite a few. I think that your post started out really strong, but ended as more of a rant about the election... which I totally understand and agree with, I just feel that it seemed like you had a lot to say about the film in the beginning and I would have liked to see you incorporate that more in the end of your post.
Waldo's character paralleled with Donald Trump to an extent. Neither had political back grounds, but both were known for being blunt and open about their opinion of issues the people care about. Things that career politicians can't easily speak on because it could damage their image. That may be the appeal, a voice closer to the public rather than the elite.
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