The power of star attraction
Husband-and-wife comedians and commentators Michele A’Court and Jeremy Elwood share their views.
After two weeks offline (no media – news, social or otherwise) I landed back in New Zealand last week and asked the guy at Immigration if anything had happened while I’d been gone. “Not really,” he shrugged. “Jacinda still in charge?” He nodded. (Not a loquacious bunch, our national greeters.) “That’s all right, then,” I said, and tottered off, duty-free bags clanking.
At home, I checked Twitter. Oprah Winfrey for President in 2020, it told me. Anointed, it would seem, by Seth Myers at the Golden Globes Awards. That’s how we do politics now. I watched Winfrey’s speech and knew, if I could, I’d vote for her.
Many people in my circle think this is crazy, and I get that. One of the lessons we might learn from Trump is that a celebrity, a television star, doesn’t have the skills, the depth, the experience of the political machine required to run a country. Sure, they said, she’d be better than Trump, but their cat would be better than Trump. (This might be true – I haven’t met their cat.)
But there are other lessons we might learn from Trump. In one of these columns in March 2016, I predicted Trump’s win (I’ve never been so disappointed about being right) because, I suggested, if a campaign for President was a ballet, Trump was a stripper storming the stage in clear heels, writhing on a pole. After that you can’t get people’s attention back with a pas de deux from the Nutcracker. You’re going to need someone who can actually crack some nuts.
I’d put my money on Oprah. Who better to debate a TV host than a better TV host?
Trump won because too many Americans felt poor and afraid, and he promised jobs and a wall. Oprah might promise them a self-help book and a new car each, and who is to say that will be less effective? Plus I’d like to see Putin and Kim Jong-un given a session on her couch.
I understand traditionalists’ frustration that we are allowing celebrities to seep into politics. But politics has been seeping into the world of celebrity for decades. Blame Joe McCarthy back in the 1950s for making artists excruciatingly aware their work was political, and that remaining personally silent on political issues wasn’t an option. Actors and storytellers learned that lesson well. People with famous names and faces became conscious they also had a voice, and they’ve been using it.
Also - this is shallow of me, but it speaks to something deeper – I am enjoying the prospect that, by 2020, there could be a woman of colour in the British Royal Family and another in the White House. It feels like time.