Archives - David RePass' Open Letter to Larry Sabato About American Candidate
June 2004
Letters to the Editor: David RePass' Open Letter to Larry Sabato About American Candidate
Search for:

Home

George,

Thanks for bringing our attention to the upcoming Showtime game show "American Candidate". My reactions are contained in the following open letter to Larry Sabato.

Dear Professor Sabato,

I am surprised that you would have anything to do with Showtime's "American Candidate". Rather than participate in it, I would think that you would denounce it as a desecration of the electoral process and a trivialization of the Presidency. Why put your prestige on line and sully the reputation of the University of Virginia by being part of this misbegotten game show? This Showtime ratings stunt will have no more relation to real presidential campaigns than professional wrestling has to the true sport of wrestling.

1) "American Candidate" assumes that the Presidency of the United States is an entry-level position -- that you don't have to have any prior experience, nor work yourself up any career ladder, to become President. Just be able to sway an audience, have the right personality, and be able to out-maneuver your opponents, and you could have the top job in the world! This is a grossly simplistic and misleading assumption about what it takes to become President.

In real election campaigns, some of the major qualities that American voters are looking for in a candidate are experience, leadership abilities and judgment These qualities can only be gained by years of learning and decision-making in lower-level positions. Voters also evaluate candidates on their record in office -- how candidates have performed in prior positions, or, in the case of an incumbent, how well he has done during the past four years. Contestants on "American Candidate" will probably not have a record in office at all -- certainly not in high level offices such as governor, senator or vice president. There will be nothing for the audience to judge the contestants on except superficialities. In the real world, candidates are substantively multidimensional with backgrounds of relevant experience, records in office, proven qualities of judgment, etc. They have been tried and tested in real and relevant positions of responsibility.

2) The producers of "American Candidate" are interested primarily in building an audience. They will see to it that all of the most titillating, underhanded and malicious tactics are encouraged. The show will be a combination of "American Idol" and "Survivor" carefully choreographed like a TV pro wrestling match. And I can well imagine that elements of "The Jerry Springer Show" will be thrown in as well. (Do you think the producers won't exploit the sexual peccadilloes of their contestants?) By comparison, the show will probably make CREEP seem like a bunch of boy scouts and Lee Atwater seem like Jimmy Stewart.

(Larry, if you are participating in this show because you think it will attract more young voters into the electoral process, think of the message this type of game playing will have. A show that disproportionately emphasizes the sleazy side of campaigning will likely only reinforce the cynicism of young people. They may watch the show because they find it amusing, but they will continue to feel that politics is mostly a game in which trickery and deceit are necessary to win.)

3) Most frightening is the fact that this show will be a dangerous intrusion into the real campaign for President. Here we have a TV reality show that will actually impinge on reality -- the reality of who becomes President of the United States. Until now, TV reality shows were simply harmless diversions. "American Candidate" has the potential to effect the course of history.

The producers of the show have suggested that the winning contestant might want to become a write-in candidate in the real election for President. In our Electoral College system, even several hundred write-in votes in one or two states could swing the election from one major party to the other.

If Showtime is successful in attracting a lot of viewers and the winner of its contest gets a lot of write-in votes, what happens next? In 2008 will we have an HBO candidate? a CNN candidate? Of course there will be a FOX candidate. How does this improve our party system? TV already has too much sway over our elections.

Showtime has chosen to run its "campaign" coterminously with the real campaign -- in the Fall of this year. This will be a diversion from the serious efforts of the real contenders to present themselves to the voters. It is bad enough that the media now spend so much time presenting the campaign as a game -- as a horse race -- instead of allowing the candidates to present their positions. Now we will have a TV game show to distract voters even more from the real positions of the real candidates.

Larry, why don't you participate in efforts to raise the level of campaigning instead of making a game out of the sacred process of voting? Showtime is exploiting our electoral system for its own commercial gain. Why are you participating in this?

David RePass (electronic mail, June 14, 2004)

Editor's Note: Larry Sabato is the Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.


Comments? Questions? Write me at george@loper.org.