Mockery or Motivation

emember that Rage Against the Machine video during the 2000 election that showed Dubya and Gore's faces morphed together, symbolizing the purely cosmetic differences between the candidates? Beginning in January 2004, average Americans will have the opportunity to find their own out-of-the-box presidential candidate or to choose another centrist--with a little help from the FX Network.

The new show American Candidate, based upon summer's break-out hit American Idol, will allow viewers to call in and choose which candidates--currently being selected from a pool of applicantsâ??move on and which are handed their hats. The show's episodes will be filmed across the U.S. at quintessentially American locales such as Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty. Like Idol, the 100 semi-finalists will be whittled to three finalists by a panel of judges and by audience votes evaluating their performance in activities like debates. On July 4, 2004, the final episode will feature a convention on the Washington Mall where the "American Candidate" will be chosen.

I asked two public policy professors--Susan Tifft and Jay Hamilton--to weigh in on the implications of Candidate for politics and the U.S.

Tifft said she is worried about the line between politics and entertainment becoming too blurred.

"The thing that concerns me is it is based on these reality shows like Survivor... and Big Brother, and what it's purporting to do is turn politics into entertainment," Tifft noted. "We live in such a media-saturated culture as it is, I'm not sure this is going to encourage people to think of politics as anything other than entertainment."

Hamilton, instead, touted the benefits of more young adults being exposed to politics. "[Many people] feel that since their votes have such a tiny chance of being influential that they will not take the time to invest in learning about the process," Hamilton wrote in an e-mail. "If this show can spark an interest in politics among 18-34 year-olds, the prime demographic for FX, then that might be a positive influence."

Tifft noted that many of her students have made similar arguments, but she remains doubtful.

"I would be ecstatic if that were true, and I wait for enlightenment," she said.