Ah, politics. The one subject that every person believes him or herself to be an expert on. Seriously. Have you ever taken the bait and entered into a political debate with someone who has failed to educate him or herself about the topic at hand? People will attempt to foist off opinions, emotions, and even lies as fact when it comes to politics and they will do so brazenly. They make no attempt to expand their insular perspectives or consider their opponent's argument: this reluctance to learn and change one's stance is one of the many problems with partisanship, which facilitates stagnancy rather than progress.
But! This is a writing blog, not a political forum (although people are trying to turn everything into a political forum as of late, especially classrooms. Oh, the ignorance that has been spewed in my government classroom...) So, we must tie the current political climate into writing. Which won't be too difficult, considering how prolific politics are in writing and how states of affairs have influenced works of fiction. If you'd like to educate yourself more about politics before trying to include such a messy topic in your writing, I'd advise doing VERY in-depth research of every "fact" that is presented to you by any news organization. Watch the news, but do so with extreme caution. Samantha Bee and Bill Mahr's shows are great sources of humorous, trenchant insight into current political issues. Just don't allow yourself to stay ignorant during in such a perilous political environment.
Now that I've shamelessly furthered my evil liberal agenda (you know, with all its human rights nonsense), let's examine how a political climate can influence fiction. We'll be examining fiction exclusively today, as most nonfiction interpretations of politics are very straightforward and tend to be either extremist or strictly unbiased. Besides, fiction can serve as an excellent conduit for political commentary, satire, and analysis that would be clumsy or otherwise ineffective if included in nonfiction text.
I'm sure we all think of Mark Twain when it comes to satire (although his satirical writings were more social than political), but let's look at some more recent examples. I think Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men does a fantastic job of capturing the political environment after the Great Depression. This book is rather straightforward in its examination of how emotional appeals and demagoguery are not inherently indicative of intelligence and leadership, but it does include some interesting commentary on political corruption that is neither conservative nor liberal in its leanings. For example, the event that initiates Willie Stark's political career is the injury of a dozen children after a county accepts money from a building company and allows the contractors to use substandard materials in the construction of a new schoolhouse. This decision by the county leaders causes a fire escape to buckle during a routine fire drill, killing and injuring dozens of children. The book tells us from the very beginning that political corruption harms the governed in a direct manner and that the only people who are helped by laundering, bribery, and threats are the people at the top. This theme is further explored when Willie Stark, now governor and too encumbered by his own hubris to remember his humble roots, use all manners of threats to acquire funding for a new hospital. Though his goal is a noble one, Willie's means of raising money for his project are unquestionably corrupt and the book ultimately condemns him for turning into the corrupt politician he once despised.
What All the King's Men accomplishes is capturing a certain political climate and providing commentary on the flaws of this climate. It is definitely true that the desperation of the Great Depression facilitated the rise of demagogues, who manipulated voters with emotional appeals and fantastic promises, and the book proposes that the cycle of corruption and demagoguery will never be broken. A glimpse at the current political climate proves that Warren's theory was correct, but even if the book's themes are still frighteningly applicable today, the novel succeeds in its depiction of a very specific time period. This book is an excellent example of how a work of fiction--with characters and settings that do not exist--can inspire in us a specific feeling associated with a specific period in politics and eke an emotional response out of a reader who may be otherwise indifferent to politics.
Literature isn't the only medium through which politics are explored. Television and film are terrific at capturing the more visceral, concrete aspects of a certain political climate and often reach a wider audience than novels do. One of the best examples of a television show capturing the spirit of a political climate is Arrested Development, which explores the paranoia-trenched US during the first term of Bush's administration and the Iraq War. Though the show centers around corruption on a smaller scale (George Bluth Sr.'s crooked business deals), the ineptitude of business leaders to make decent decisions serves as a metaphor for the equally inept administration in place during this time. The show doesn't shy away from discussing the impact of the Iraq War on the US and even makes some incisive observations about the conflict that are unprecedented from a show during this era, as the post-9/11 world was and is so staunchly patriotic that any remarks against the United States are instantly perceived as blasphemous. Arrested Development never shied away from portraying corporations and, on a larger scale, the United States as deeply flawed, and did so in an elegant, hysterical manner. Political commentary aside, the show simply feels like a product of the early 2000s. Everything from Franklin's "George Bush Hates Black Puppets" t-shirt to lines like "they found warheads in Iraq so we got half a day" makes the show feel more sincere and deserving in its criticism and exploration of the era's political climate.
Even today's political climate has started influencing art and media. I don't know how, but Parks and Recreation accurately predicted the candidates of the 2016 election--or, at least, predicted the personalities of the candidates. Instead of a presidential election, the show goes smaller and focuses on a town council race between the over-qualified, intelligent, eloquent Leslie Knope and the juvenile, thin-skinned, ignorant Bobby Newport (who, like his real-life doppelganger, has never had a real job in his life). The similarities between these fictional candidates and the ones in the current race are astounding: did Parks and Rec know that this was where the country was heading? That a wealthy candidate with no qualifications or political plans would earn the public's support? That a candidate with all the qualifications would be snubbed for being a successful woman and making a few mistakes in office?
These questions will be better explored in the future as more artists, writers, and producers use the current political climate to shape their creations. Shows like Saturday Night Live and South Park are already using the climate to their artistic advantage by tackling current issues, but these are mostly fleeting impressions. Don't despair: it won't be long before we have a more concrete, in-depth examination of the current climate and the circumstances that allowed a sentient circus peanut to gain so much support (although a lot of that support is derived from the basket of deplorables, who are, in fact, deplorable). If you want to be one of the first to brave this new frontier, there are a few steps you can take to make your work unique. As I said, do as much research as possible. Do not believe anything unless you've done the research yourself. Be cynical. But go beyond the politics. Arrested Development and All the King's Men succeeded because they included other aspects of the time period. Make observations about social issues and the language, pop culture, and discourse of the times. Don't shy away from exploring the opponent's side. And, most importantly, don't forget to vote this November.
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