Al Franken's ascendancy to the Senate has got me thinking. I have a thought - in place of elections lets just create a reality TV series called 'Americas Next Top Real Survivor of the Amazing Congressional Race'. Sponsorship advertising revenues go to the US general fund. Each candidate has to live in the House of Representatives for 4 months, eat dinner with the other candidates, argue, and room with the rest while cameras follow them everywhere capturing all the reality. We start with an eclectic mix of Dems, repubs, anarchists, libertarians, etc. They participate in a made up series of challenges that kind of reflect things that a representative might be expected to master: a three legged race with a lobbiest, impromto back peddling on a tandem bike teamed with a reporter, a 30 minute speech about absolutely nothing, long distance mudslinging, standup fillibustering, brothel geocaching in foreign lands, and creative infidelity, to name a few. Viewers get to vote off the ones they don't like or who aren't entertaining enough. The winner takes a seat in Congress... Maybe it's not different enough from our current primary system.
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6 comments:
It might get more people interested!
What? No socialists? Granted, they'd probably get chased off the set with the pitchforks, but still...
Funny thing I've found about reality shows is that, when they're edited, they usually edit it in a way that clearly shows certain people as sympathetic by inordinately focusing on certain struggles in the show (DRAMA!!) and then strategically playing the right music and showing the right cut-away, straight-to-camera, speak-your-mind segments at the right time to pull at the heart strings in just the right way, in favor of a single party. So, as entertaining as the possibility of an electoral reality show is, I am left with the concern of who gets the ability to edit it if political coverage is just given to us in a single show? Because I think we can all agree about the pant-shitting terror we experience when we hear the phrase "America's Next Top Real Survivor of the Amazing Congressional Race, tonight at 8 on FOX".
That being said, it is only a matter of time before this happens. I am building myself a bunker as we speak.
terror we experience when we hear the phrase "America's Next Top Real Survivor of the Amazing Congressional Race, tonight at 8 on FOX".
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Save me some concrete! I'm off to the yard with a surveyor as we speak...
Even with tongue planted firmly in cheek Pliny, you make a good point.
How about a show called 'Break the Facade' wherein some of our best scientists create tests to strip away the crafted personas of practiced liars?
To start it'll have just regular liars, and then two spin-offs specifically for actors/actresses and politicians.
Watcha think?
Break the Facade? hmmmmm - problem is we already can do that easily and still nobody seems to care.
Maybe?
.....If you could convince people to pay 50 cents a call.
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