Conor P. Williams really enjoys watching the amazing race -- not the CBS program, but the race for the Republican presidential nomination, which Williams, a senior education researcher at the think tank New America, called “my favorite TV show” in a Monday column on Talking Points Memo.
For Williams, much of the “entertainment value” of the GOP contest lies in its right-wing extremism: “This is a show where the American conservative id fully unravels in public…The Democrats' primaries are relatively boring. Why? Because they don't have an empowered fringe. Their candidates operate pretty securely within the Overton Window of political possibility. The GOP's empowered, hard-right wing makes their primaries way more interesting.”
As for who might emerge as a star in the new season, Williams has high hopes for Ted Cruz, whom he described as “an erratic politician, which is another way of saying he’s a reliable entertainer. Cruz blends some of [Newt] Gingrich’s sharpness with red-meat conservative traditionalism. In other words, he’s a more clever and dynamic version of Rick Santorum.”
From Williams’s piece (bolding added):
Christmas came early in my house last month when Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced he was running for president. The GOP presidential primaries are my favorite TV show, and I’ve been waiting so long for the 2016 season.
You are thinking I’m joking. But I am actually dead serious. Serious as an uninsured American facing a grave illness (a situation which prompted cheers from a 2011 GOP presidential debate crowd). I love the GOP’s primaries. I watch every second of the debates. I devour the coverage. I pore over candidates’ websites for issue positions and dream about campaign gaffes. This is as good as political entertainment gets, and it’s Must-Watch TV in my house.
It's true that the GOP's primaries offer a showcase for some horrifying, brutally consequential ideas. A hypothetical Scott Walker Administration would have non-entertaining consequences for women's health, the global climate, and gay rights (inter alia). But paradoxically, the gravity of the situation raises the GOP primaries' entertainment value. This is a show where the American conservative id fully unravels in public—and gets heavy media coverage. Which makes it one of the few times that the key differences between the two parties are on full display.
The Democrats' primaries are relatively boring. Why? Because they don't have an empowered fringe. Their candidates operate pretty securely within the Overton Window of political possibility. The GOP's empowered, hard-right wing makes their primaries way more interesting. Anything can (and does!) happen in those debates, and that requires voters and journalists to explain how this fits the common “false equivalence” story: the view that both parties are equally unreasonable and equally responsible for federal dysfunction.
…Can my favorite TV show retain its vitality and momentum after the blockbuster, series-defining 2012 season? From cast to narrative to culmination, it was a season good enough to swamp the show entirely…
…Is there anyone in the 2016 casting buzz who can match the extraordinary, surrealist political entertainment talents of Herman Cain—let alone his tragicomic rise and fall? I doubt it…
…Ron Paul has left the show for good. That feels like a mortal blow to the series.
And yet early casting seems promising. Cruz is an erratic politician, which is another way of saying he’s a reliable entertainer. Cruz blends some of Gingrich’s sharpness with red-meat conservative traditionalism. In other words, he’s a more clever and dynamic version of Rick Santorum...
Add former Johns Hopkins brain surgeon and walking Godwin’s Law catalyst Ben Carson to the mix, and the 2016 cast might just have the season’s requisite wild-eyed cultural references covered…
There’s so much more! Can Rand Paul fill his dad's shoes as far as wild-eyed libertarian rhetoric? (Spoiler: no). Who will replace [Jon] Huntsman as the hapless “moderate” who attracts media hype without building any popular support? (I think it might be Lindsey Graham.) Will returning stars Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry reprise their folksy-cum-ditzy roles—or shake things up? And above all: WILL LOUIS GOHMERT RUN?
