Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/04/wwes-kane-is-the-new-mayor-o.html
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Is the WWE becoming a training camp for future politicians?
For GOP ones, yes. Right-wing populism is nothing without a big greasy portion of kayfabe.
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Rick Steiner (of the Steiner brothers) was on the school board in Cherokee county, GA… I don’t know how conservative he was while in office, though. Cherokee County is pretty red, just in general.
Seems like Jesse Ventura set of a wave of pro wrestlers getting into politics.
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Well why not? Pro wrestling and politics are both about performance. Al Franken made a pretty fine Senator. The world is such a complex place any more, elected officials are forced to let their staff do the thinking. Who ever said it takes a genius to deliver a rousing speech?
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Kayfabe is a special kind of performance. It deliberately conflates fantasy with reality, celebrates vulgarity and coarseness as characteristics of “reg’lar folks”, trafficks in simplistic narratives of good and evil (often incorporating jingoism and – in the past – overt racism), and uses all the soap-opera drama to distract from what is an often brutal and exploitative underlying real-world capitalist enterprise.
So you can see why right-wing populist politicians in particular have a special affinity for it.
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Al Franken was a policy wonk as well as a comedian & wrote a couple of books that were distinctly in his own voice.
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As a former Knoxvillian, I didn’t necessarily see this coming, but it makes sense in the Trump era. That area is heavily conservative. Now that the generation that grew up with WWF/E wrestling is middle-aged, and conservatism is untethered from keeping up stodgy appearances, I guess that’s what you get.
Honestly, he’s not going to be any worse than anyone else they would have voted for, I’m sure.
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Of course he ran on a platform of cutting taxes, translation, corporations will receive tax cuts and the general working public will have to make up for it with increased taxes or reduced services. Ah, the glory and freedom of right wing policies.
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Yeah, but what was his finishing move?!
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We weren’t really expecting him to be his brother’s keeper, were we?
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I certainly was not, but then again, it’s just another case of poor white folk voting against their best economic interests.
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First a public services suplex and then finally a tax take down.
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Jacobs previously wrestled as Isaac Yankem, DDS.
I look forward to hearing his experienced healthcare platform.
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Kane is generally considered to be one of the most intelligent wrestlers out there - heck, he owns an insurance agency. However, he’s a libertarian, which kind of cancels that out.
But hey, from the Christmas Creature to Mayor, that’s a step up.
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It certainly isn’t a wokeslam
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