The Simpsons Gubernatorial Election?
Aug. 8th, 2003 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteSo here I am in New York, watching the amazing recall election warmup in California. I hadn't been paying too much attention to it till lately, as I don't live there, and figure that there are many more things I should be paying attention to, in the world and locally.
But it's kind of hard to ignore the circus that it's becoming. And the more I looked into it, the more i found that it seemed terribly familiar...
McBain is running. Or rather, his real live stand-in. Gary Coleman - who showed up in a Simpsons Christmas episode - is running. There are not one but two millionaires who seem to think they can buy the election. Hordes of average citizens, or is it fair to say nobodies, are running, like Homer Simpson running for Garbage Commissioner. Instead of Krusty, it's Gallagher.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the election that even the writers of The Simpsons would not dare write. And it's real.
This is a serious thing, of course, as the course of life in a state that is home to over 1/10th of our population, that is an economic powerhuse, is at stake. As is the way democracy in California is operated, since the threat of unending recalls hangs over whoever wins every future election. But at some level, this is very entertaining.
Which is very sad. For years, politics and show biz intersected, out there and everywhere else. but it used to be that when actors got involve din politics, they got serious. Even deadly earnest. Say what you will about Ronald Reagan, but he treated his jobs in government with a good deal of dignity. Now the reverse is true, and politics is just another form of show biz for too many.
So we get hordes of minor celebrities running, all claiming to be serious. And we get Ah-nuld, whose announcement was a farce unto itself that made him sound cartoonish.
At the same time, though, there is the earnest young lady who seems to be running because she thinks it's time for a change. I found Georgy Russell while looking over the long list of announced candidates. (BTW, does it mean anything that it seems no African Americans, only one Chicano, and no Asians are running in the mass of candidates?) I will admit that I looked at her Web site mainly because I saw a pretty and young face (all of 26!), and wondered if this was another joke campaign, a model or something.
I looked at the site and found someone is sincere in her desire to change things, who sounds like one of us, essentially, in her frustration with how things are, and who wants to get young people involved. She's also a software engineer, which means she might be a geek. At the same time, she's selling all sorts of merchandise with her "Georgy for Governor" slogan on them. Including thongs. I'd say only in California, but something tells me that's not the case. What I do sense is that in the morass of self-promoters and career hacks, there is one woman who finds herself energized to change things.
I wouldn't vote for someone like her, to be honest. I don't really want someone with not experience in a job like governor of California. But I know how she feels, and maybe she and others like her will turn this farce into the start of something more. I guess in this mess, she's Lisa Simpson. Here's her site: www.georgyforgov.com
Meanwhile, if you want to get a handle on the whole mess, I suggest you go to Mark Evanier's blog. Evanier is a comic book and animation writer who is also a fairly astute political thinker and a good hand with providing useful links. I've gotten up to speed by reading his blog, and think he has a lot to say about his home state. It's at www.newsfromme.com
Lastly, for a humorous take on the whole thing, we turn to PAD's blog, where he suggests a list of 10 celebrities he would rather see running:
http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/gmlog/00000490.html
Thank you for watching the Simpsons Election Special. Stay tuned for the Futurama Biotech Special. :)
But it's kind of hard to ignore the circus that it's becoming. And the more I looked into it, the more i found that it seemed terribly familiar...
McBain is running. Or rather, his real live stand-in. Gary Coleman - who showed up in a Simpsons Christmas episode - is running. There are not one but two millionaires who seem to think they can buy the election. Hordes of average citizens, or is it fair to say nobodies, are running, like Homer Simpson running for Garbage Commissioner. Instead of Krusty, it's Gallagher.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the election that even the writers of The Simpsons would not dare write. And it's real.
This is a serious thing, of course, as the course of life in a state that is home to over 1/10th of our population, that is an economic powerhuse, is at stake. As is the way democracy in California is operated, since the threat of unending recalls hangs over whoever wins every future election. But at some level, this is very entertaining.
Which is very sad. For years, politics and show biz intersected, out there and everywhere else. but it used to be that when actors got involve din politics, they got serious. Even deadly earnest. Say what you will about Ronald Reagan, but he treated his jobs in government with a good deal of dignity. Now the reverse is true, and politics is just another form of show biz for too many.
So we get hordes of minor celebrities running, all claiming to be serious. And we get Ah-nuld, whose announcement was a farce unto itself that made him sound cartoonish.
At the same time, though, there is the earnest young lady who seems to be running because she thinks it's time for a change. I found Georgy Russell while looking over the long list of announced candidates. (BTW, does it mean anything that it seems no African Americans, only one Chicano, and no Asians are running in the mass of candidates?) I will admit that I looked at her Web site mainly because I saw a pretty and young face (all of 26!), and wondered if this was another joke campaign, a model or something.
I looked at the site and found someone is sincere in her desire to change things, who sounds like one of us, essentially, in her frustration with how things are, and who wants to get young people involved. She's also a software engineer, which means she might be a geek. At the same time, she's selling all sorts of merchandise with her "Georgy for Governor" slogan on them. Including thongs. I'd say only in California, but something tells me that's not the case. What I do sense is that in the morass of self-promoters and career hacks, there is one woman who finds herself energized to change things.
I wouldn't vote for someone like her, to be honest. I don't really want someone with not experience in a job like governor of California. But I know how she feels, and maybe she and others like her will turn this farce into the start of something more. I guess in this mess, she's Lisa Simpson. Here's her site: www.georgyforgov.com
Meanwhile, if you want to get a handle on the whole mess, I suggest you go to Mark Evanier's blog. Evanier is a comic book and animation writer who is also a fairly astute political thinker and a good hand with providing useful links. I've gotten up to speed by reading his blog, and think he has a lot to say about his home state. It's at www.newsfromme.com
Lastly, for a humorous take on the whole thing, we turn to PAD's blog, where he suggests a list of 10 celebrities he would rather see running:
http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/gmlog/00000490.html
Thank you for watching the Simpsons Election Special. Stay tuned for the Futurama Biotech Special. :)
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(no subject)
Date: Aug. 8th, 2003 10:27 am (UTC)The Simpsons episode, "Trash of the Titans," in which Homer runs for garbage commissioner, is wonderful. I show it to my students when we study Pollution.
Hi...
Date: Aug. 8th, 2003 10:52 am (UTC)Anyone who also reads Peter David's blog and Mark Evanier's blog is top notch in my book.
Re: Hi...
Date: Aug. 8th, 2003 11:02 am (UTC)And anyone who has a shot from "God, the Devil and Bob" as his icon gets several thousand style points.
(no subject)
Date: Aug. 19th, 2003 06:24 am (UTC)Five-Minute Voyager News [64]
sdelmonte: The Simpsons Gubenatorial Election? [9]
Google [6]
Glenn Hauman - [5]
Five-Minute Voyager News [2]
http://www.jadedwritings.com/pages/after.html [2]