The Bob Roberts Presidency: A Political Cinematic Universe Crossover

Election 2016: Infinity War

U.S. voters are now in the unenviable position of most likely having to choose between two unappealing candidates in the 2020 election. Sigh. Last night I watched Tim Robbins’ unsung masterpiece Bob Roberts (1992), a film that always cheers me up with its scathingly progressive, and all-too-relevant, satire of a right-wing entertainer-turned-political-demigod. Unfortunately we’re now living in the Roberts era.

Bob Roberts takes the form of a fictional documentary detailing the Pennsylvania senatorial campaign of right-wing folk singer Bob Roberts (played by Robbins himself), set against the larger backdrop of the Gulf War. Roberts presents himself as a conservative mirror of the likes of Bob Dylan; as one character says of him: “Here is a man who has adopted the persona and mindset of a freethinking rebel and turned it on itself. ‘The Rebel Conservative.’ That is deviant brilliance. What a Machiavellian poser.” The opponent is incumbent Senator Brickley Paiste (Gore Vidal, in a brilliantly didactic performance), an anti-war politician of principle and conviction eventually unseated by the sleazy, cutthroat tactics of Roberts and company. I’ve heard this story before.

Perhaps the most prevalent symptom that Bob Roberts predicted was what Katrina vanden Heuvel has called “media malpractice” [1] when it comes to the 2016 election. Most of the media figures in Robbins’ film fawn relentlessly over the charismatic folk singer, who derides any unflattering journalism as “biased” and therefore illegitimate. Meanwhile Roberts turns an appearance on a Saturday evening sketch comedy series series into a makeshift campaign event, prompting outrage from some staff and the guest host (namelessly played by John Cusack). Roberts knows, if nothing else, how to play the mainstream media [2].

And Roberts is only the logical extension of previous Republican presidents before him, particularly Greg Stillson [3], whose presidency is marked by unbelievably violent and destabilizing response to crises. Backed by Vice President Barry Convex of Spectacular Optical [4], the war machine ran, and most of the media fell in line.

Commentators like Lonesome Rhodes [5] and Elliot Carver [6] helped elect Roberts by pushing the center to the right, the right further to the right, and stoking the worst in people. Meanwhile, in many cases the same is not true of journalists on the left, who are routinely dismissed while whistleblowers are ignored or targeted. In the film, Bugs Raplin (Giancarlo Esposito) swears he’ll take down Bob Roberts, but winds up murdered by a stochastic terrorist (“remote-control murder by lone wolf” [7]).

The figure of Bob Roberts is in many ways a twisted opposite of Michael Murphy’s Jack Tanner, the presidential candidate of Robert Altman and Garry Trudeau’s documentary miniseries Tanner ’88, a film that very obviously influenced Robbins. Tanner runs a very convincing fictional campaign during a very real election cycle, one that, as Tanner notes in a 2004 introductory scene, saw the unprecedented political downfall of a candidate based on his personal life. Gary Kornblau suggests that “Tanner is the first politician to fully appreciate modern-day media culture for what it is”, adding that ironically “we may appreciate Tanner as more genuine than the other potential nominees.” [8] For real, indeed. Both Tanner ’88 and Bob Roberts are more incisive and illuminating takes on electoral politics than many “real” political documentaries like The War Room and that clueless new documentary on former presidential candidate Tracy Flick [9].

She lost, and he won, and now we have to deal with that fallout.

Election 2020: Endgame

But Tanner ’88 and Bob Roberts are in the past. We’re well beyond the 2016 election cycle. Roberts has been president for years now, and Tanner has been defeated in the primaries once again. The 2020 race is a gloomy one for progressives yet again. Lesser of two evils and all that. I like to believe Tanner could beat Roberts, should the two ever meet in a bid for elected office. But that matchup will never come.

“More than machinery, we need humanity”: a line from Chaplin’s famous speech at the end of The Great Dictator, and something that needs remembering. We live in a world where political machinery has taken over. It’s the political machine that got Bob Roberts elected and stalled the humanity-driven career of Jack Tanner. As Roberts aspires to a kind of Hynkel-esque dictatorship, there is no humble, decent lookalike come to take his place and speak truth to power.

Meanwhile, Roberts will be going up in 2020 against Chauncey Gardiner. We didn’t nominate Tanner (sadly), or Charles Foster Kane [10] (thank goodness). No, it’s Gardiner now. The quiet hero of Hal Ashby’s Being There is a kind of bland, unremarkable figure whose sole political accomplishment is, simply, being there. Gardiner has indeed been there, but if that’s his only credential, don’t expect people to turn out. Gardiner isn’t exciting, and in fact his blandness and ability to say a lot without really saying anything are considered pluses by the political establishment.

People are dying right now, and that’s unambiguously because of Roberts’ far-right, James Marshall-worshipping tough-guy “get off my plane” worldview [11]. Mayor Vaughn didn’t close the beaches in time  despite Matt Hooper’s warnings [12]. This incompetence and brutalism cannot be ignored, and everyone must reckon with the consequences of, yes, Tanner supporters being unwilling to “pick Flick” in the general election, but more importantly of Flick’s coronation by the elites to begin with. Twice now Tanner has had the deck stacked against him. 2016 echoes loudly in my ears. I hope Gardiner can get there. But don’t pretend he’s Jefferson Smith [13] or something.

I have sympathy for those who will choose not to vote for Gardiner. I voted Flick in 2016 and now, in many ways, I regret my decision. We ended up with Roberts anyway, and I feel corrupted by the decision not to vote my values (by, say, writing in Tanner). And while I wouldn’t claim both candidates or their parties as identical, in 2016 and apparently again in 2020, neither choice seems particularly worthwhile. I can’t answer the fundamental question of whether leftists must vote for Gardiner, but my inclination is to say no. After all, no one should receive a vote by default. How is that even remotely democratic?

If Gardiner loses, please just don’t blame Hal Phillip Walker [14] again.

Phase 4

Where will we go from here? With the world devastated by Captain Trips [15] and the U.S. facing a potential reelection of Bob Roberts, the Democratic party has some serious decisions to make. In an ideal world, we’d have candidate Tanner, but this is far from an ideal world. With any luck we’ll kick Roberts out, but that’s not a sure thing. We may have to deal with a revolving door of more Stuart Smileys [16] and Lukas Harts [17] of the world.

Mainstream media hasn’t changed much. They’re set to coronate Gardiner like they coronated Flick. You’re better off listening to journalist Howard Beale [18] or documentarian Marty DiBergi [19], two people who, amidst insistence that Roberts couldn’t win, warned that he could. And while Carver’s influence has waned, there’s still a tremendous right-wing media establishment to contend with.

I remain hopeful, though, because I know at least two things. One: as progressives, “we are winning the ideological battle” [20]. Two: it’s not just the question of who’s president that matters. Whatever surreal political fiction we’ve become ensconced in, I’m in awe of the growing group of progressive politicans in Congress who help pull us back to reality, people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayana Pressley, Ro Khanna… I could go on. But it’s more than elected officials: it’s groups like the Poor People’s Campaign and Sunrise Movement; activists and writers like Angela Davis (who appeared as herself in Chris Vargas and Eric A. Stanley’s 2016 film Criminal Queers, a truly amazing and genuinely radical piece of political film art) and the students of Parkland, FL; issues like Medicare for all, prison abolition, anti-capitalism, and climate action are becoming increasingly mainstreamed. The time for political fiction is over. Political action must take over. I’m as guilty as anyone of mistaking engagement for the actual work of social change, but no more. Death to Videodrome. Long live the New Flesh. [21]

Legend

Bob Roberts = Donald Trump

Jack Tanner = Bernie Sanders

Greg Stillson = George W. Bush

Barry Convex = Dick Cheney

Spectacular Optical = Halliburton

Larry ‘Lonesome’ Rhodes = Alex Jones

Elliot Carver = Steve Bannon

Tracy Flick = Hillary Clinton

Hynkel = Hitler

Chauncey Gardiner = Joe Biden

Charles Foster Kane = Michael Bloomberg

James Marshall = Ronald Reagan

Larry Vaughn = Ron DeSantis [22]

Matt Hooper = Dr. Anthony Fauci

Jefferson Smith = a neoliberal fantasy

Hal Phillip Walker = Ralph Nader

Captain Trips = COVID-19

Stuart Smiley = John Bolton

Lukas Hart = I’m gonna go with Erik Prince

Howard Beale = Cenk Uygur

Marty DiBergi = Michael Moore

[Author’s Note: This is satire. I mean no disrespect to any of the real people who I reference through the lens of fictional characters, and obviously all comparisons are inherently flawed to some extent. No comparison is meant to convey fact about any real-life figure, but to make a point about fiction and reality when it comes to politics. I did my best to do justice to those public figures I admire as well as to those I don’t.]

[Update 04/12/20: This piece originally compared Steve Bannon to the anonymous poison pen letter-writer of Clouzot’s Le corbeau, when he’s obviously more like that one Bond villain from the Pierce Brosnan period who tries to start a war or control all media on Earth or something, whatever. The author regrets the error.]

[Update 04/16/20: This piece originally cited Greta Thunberg in its final paragraph, but since this piece is generally focused on the U.S. political scene specifically, I thought it better to cite the students of Parkland instead.]

[Update 04/24/20: I removed a comparison I wasn’t happy with (specifically the Rufus T. Firefly one, who I kind of nonsensically compared to Marianne Williamson; it was a stretch).]

Sources and Footnotes

1. Katrina vanden Heuvel, “The Media Malpractice That’s Hurting Everyone but Trump”, Washington Post, March 15, 2016
2. Jennifer L. Pozner, “All in the Family: NBC and the Manufacturing of Donald Trump”, Bitch, Spring 2017
3. Presidential candidate in Stephen King’s novel The Dead Zone, played in Cronenberg’s film adaptation by Martin Sheen (and yes, I am aware that Johnny Smith prevents Stillson from ever becoming president, but go with me on this)
4. Chief antagonist (and the company he represents) of David Cronenberg’s prophetic masterpiece Videodrome
5. The central character of A Face in the Crowd, played by Andy Griffith
6. That evil media mogul played by Jonathan Pryce in Tomorrow Never Dies
7. http://stochasticterrorism.blogspot.com/
8. Gary Kornblau, “On the Logic of Candidate Tanner”, supplement to Criterion’s release of Tanner ’88
9. The energetic overachiever played by Reese Witherspoon in Election (1999)
10. The titular character of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane
11. Harrison Ford’s character in Air Force One
12. The mayor in Spielberg’s Jaws, played by Murray Hamilton, and the shark scientist, played by Richard Dreyfuss
13. James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
14. The third-party presidential candidate (Thomas Hal Phillips) laced throughout the background of Robert Altman’s opus Nashville (1975)
15. The virus from Stephen King’s The Stand (sorry, I couldn’t resist, please don’t take this as a minimization of the very real horrors of the coronavirus)
16. Kevin Pollak’s character in Michael Moore’s Canadian Bacon (the one who tries to concoct a war with Canada)
17. A businessman in Bob Roberts who supports Roberts as a way to cover up his own crimes (played by the late Alan Rickman)
18. Peter Finch’s character in Network; you remember, he’s the one who says “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Mad as Hell was used as a title for a documentary on Cenk Uygur and The Young Turks
19. The fictional documentarian of This is Spinal Tap, played by that film’s own director, Rob Reiner
20. Bernie Sanders, in his speech announcing he was suspending his 2020 campaign
21. The liberatory refrain of Videodrome
22. I’m not the first to make this comparison: see this Wonkette article by Liz Dye, among what I’m sure are others