I was doing a number of different things today. The television was on but it has only served as background noise because I never noticed what was on it. When I finally did sit down to take a breakand looked at the TV screen is when I noticed that it was tuned to TVLAnd and Bonanza was just about to begin. What the heck, I thought, as I sat and watched it.
It turned out to be quite an amusing show, so appropriate for this time period. The title of the episode was The Last Vote and it guest starred Tom Bosley and Wally Cox. I don't want to go through a step-by-step telling of the story, but I want to give a summary of what the story was about.
It's election time. Two men, who get along famously and work as partners in the same store, decide to run for mayor. Each hopes to win but will be just as thrilled if the other wins, for they decide that, if they are the only candidates, then the city will get the best mayor possible. In other words, the two go into this as friends and it's "may the best man win".
Little Joe is so happy that his favorite merchant is running for the office and announces to him that he will help spread the word and try to drum up support. He in no way, though, has any intention of criticizing the character of the other candidate. Soon it becomes apparent that if Little Joe praises his favorite's honesty, he is suggesting that the other candidate's is less than honest. This troubles Hoss so much that he decides to help the other candidate. As one is attempting to place a candidate on a pedestal, the other must discredit that candidate in order to get his candidate on the pedestal. In no time, the "we'll go in this together and may the best man win" attitude becomes a mud-slinging battle, not only between the candidates, but between the campaign chairmen (Little Joe and Hoss) and the residents of the city.
The focus, then, can't help but shift from the real issues to seeing who can out-do the other. The candidate that orders up "free drinks for all" becomes the favorite, only to be replaced by the other candidate when he announces a fun day with a street parade complete with full brass bands and twirlers. Some like one more because he doesn't stutter so much, while others don't like him as much because he mistakenly short-changed someone one day in the store.
Election day finally arrives and everyone casts their votes. There is a tie and only a little time left before the voting deadline. Only one person has not made it to the voting "building" yet, so every effort is made by both sides to get that person in on time and to persuade his vote. But, rather than make this one person have to choose between his two friends that he feels are equally qualified, one candidate concedes.
The entire show was "told" in a light-hearted way, but it definitely showed how politics can change people and divide people instead of achieving the good that all would hope for, whether it be back in the days of the Ponderosa or in the cities and towns of today. Focus is shifted in directions not necessarily key to the issues at hand and the "race" becomes more of a popularity contest instead of a means to choose the most qualified. Leave it to an old fictional TV show to spoof something that has so much truth in it.
9 comments on Fictional Politics
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As you wrote"Not necessarily key to the issues at hand.....the "race"becomes a popularity contest....instead of the means to choose most qualified" Well put Donna..
I"ve been singing that song to all who will listen here at home since this silly season started....
"Thumb's Up" :-)
I thought poilitics was always fiction!!!
Should I hang my head in shame when I say I have never seen one episode of Bonanza?? I was busy doing other things--missed all those programs from the 50s and 60s like Leave It To Beaver, etc.