Show Biz Politics

"Who's that? Must be a king."
"King, eh? I didn't vote for him." -- Monty Python

   The presidential campaign hasn't even entered the designated election year, and already it has taken on elements of a Shakespearean tragedy, reducing the competition to a level of personal attack unworthy of mature candidates.
   Assuming, of course, that the candidates are mature individuals.
  Rarely are policy plans and positions mentioned, if in fact there are any. Instead, the talk has been just that -- talk, coupled with warnings that any criticism, disagreement or attack will bring on severe counterattack, coupled with complaints about "unfair" treatment.
   It's schoolyard behavior.
   "Boo-hoo, that's not fair, you're not being nice to me."
   Poor baby.
   As if being nice was ever common in an American political campaign.

   Disagreement over policy is routine in a mature society, where compromise is essential to progress. But an attitude of "my way or the highway" only leads to chaos, followed by dictatorship.
   One candidate -- let's call him DeLear Tremens, since his behavior is like that of the Shakespearean king who went mad when those close to him disagreed with his demands -- began his campaign confident in all the glory that his previous success had provided. Anyway, DT's dreams of power, authority and his self-proclaimed ability to solve all problems if only everyone would do everything his way, dissipated in the swamp of competition, and King DT wound up a shadow of his former swaggering self.
   It may be problematic to compare modern American presidential politics to royal retribution in medieval Scotland, and maybe it's just a coincidence that one of the candidates has a Scottish mother and owns several battlefields -- er, golf courses -- in Scotland.
   In any case, overweening arrogance may be entertaining in a dramatic theatrical performance when it leads inevitably to the downfall of the arrogator, but when it happens in the real world, especially during a campaign for nomination to be President of the United States, the final act can only be tragic.