Waldo

In the movie The Waldo Moment, I noticed many similarities to the current election. In many ways Waldo was similar to Donald Trump solely based on the fact that he was a wild card candidate. He would insult people, but it was his job and he was a comedian. Waldo wanted to do it to make people laugh not to bring people down. The only real moment the original Waldo had that was Trump-esque in my opinion was when people figured out who he was and the main candidate bashed him on national television. It clearly hurt him so he lashed out rather harshly against more than one person. However, the person originally playing Waldo clearly had a problem with getting into the political aspect of the Waldo character. At this point in the movie, I could see how it was the mean jokes that correlated. However, it wasn't until the person who voiced Waldo and manned the simulation changed to the show's owner did I see a direct correlation. At the moment that the original person playing Waldo rebelled, the owner of the Tv show showed so much hatred. He wanted good ratings and success for his show; he was willing to do anything to make that happen. So at this point I am basically thinking "Holy Crap, this is so real". The real turning moment for me was when the original Waldo was kicking the Waldo mobile and Waldo demanded that people hurt him, even bribed people to do so, and the Waldo supporters did it. That just made me flash back to the rallies during this campaign season. Some people were completely willing to hurt minorities that were protesting Trump rallies. It is one thing to kick them out, but to assault people for not having the same ideology is insane. This was the exact point where everything just hit so close to home. It made me think, what will happen to this world now that we have a person so willing to harass and berate others as our president. Then, I saw the end of the movie. Waldo literally took over the world. Everyone seemed to like his vulgarity and crudeness, even children. Which I found appalling. It was such an eye opening, though evoking movie. Is this the way our world will turn out, and if so, how can we help it not become such a disaster? Another thought was, is this even realistic based on the way our government is set up. We have a checks and balances system that should prevent something this major and insane from happening. Regardless of whether or not we have a  president who believes all of these prejudices, which is not unprecedented - just not so out in the open, the checks and balances system should still hold true. Also, the presidency is intimidating and it already seems to me that some of these "solid promises" are starting to soften in favor of less severe ideas.