Waldo the bear is portrayed as a nonsensical cartoon character built on satirical jokes at the expense of the guests on a popular UK television show. He entered the campaign as a joke candidate with the primary purpose of slandering candidate Liam Monroe, the serious candidate who is viewed as part of what a stereotypical career politician would be. The other running character, Gwendolyn, briefly had a relationship with the puppeteer of Waldo, James Salter, but had to break off the relationship for the election. Waldo would later use the knowledge from this relationship to oust Gwendolyn as a candidate, truthfully exposing her as running just to build a public face for a later public career. Waldo would also call out Monroe as a typical faceless politician who would not improve the lives of voter, but instead make a living on the flawed system the only looked out for itself and the people with enough power and funding to support the system that benefits themselves; a self serving cycle for the elite. With this, Waldo became the image of any who opposed the system as it is, standing for nothing yet better than the politicians who claimed to be for the people. Those who chose to vote for Waldo voted not vote; that is, they expressed an unwillingness to take seriously the current system.
Our own election this year relates to the fictional tale. The two candidates, Trump and Clinton represent, in a way, Waldo and the career politicians respectively. Clinton represented the politician claiming to be for the people and to serve as president, yet the voters view her in a less favorable light. Instead, she is seen as a secretive figure, surrounded in scandals and rumors of corruption; the vision voters hold of a stereotypical career politician trying to establish herself in an elite position at the expense of integrity and regard for lower classes. Trump made big waves in the media throughout his campaign for presidency with large, unrealistic claims and wild visions with the intent to "make America great again." Many of his proclaimed policies are controversial on a wide spectrum of voters, attracting attention to him and away from the career politicians. It is worth noting that Trump himself in not a politician, but instead a businessman. While he certainly has a backing of Americans, many of Trump's supporters, even in the Republican party that nominated him, disagree with Trump on his various policies. Running against Clinton, the 'main' opposing candidate, gave Trump a greater gathering of followers who opposed Clinton, or more specifically her media view of a politician involved in scandal. A surprising number of voters actually voted for a dead gorilla rather than cast a serious candidate, opposing the system itself. This view of politics, where we laugh at our politicians and rather listen to comedians on nighttime shows, and where we vote on who is the lesser evil, is an indication of how little americans as a whole care about the big picture of politics and its consequences until it affects them negatively.
1 comment:
Matthew,
I fully stand by the statements you have made in your post. I do also believe that the American people favored a candidate who would be be able to relate to the people outside of politics. I do also enjoy your viewpoint of Trump and Waldo as being the candidates who go against the corrupted politicians running for office.
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