Mindless Entertainment

On Thursday, I went on a hurried journey to Mindless Entertainment Inc., located across the street from Paramount Studios in Hollywood, to audition for the Game Show Network's (GSN's) 'Who Wants to be Governor of California?', a debate among five pre-selected candidates, in a game-show format, to be filmed in late September and aired on Cable TV across the U.S. on October 1st. The interview went well - I hope very much that I'm picked. Not just because I want to win the $21,000+ campaign cash prize, but because I believe that GSN's approach actually represents THE major innovation of the campaign, perhaps a revolutionary development that can break the stranglehold Big Money has on campaigns nationwide.

What is it we miss most in American politics? Spirited political debate, the kind that thrived at saloons and debating clubs across America in the early 19th Century. Legendary debaters, like Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, the triumvirate that dominated the Great Compromise of 1850 Congressional debates, or Lincoln and Douglas, campaigning in the Illinois Congressional elections of 1858, were merely the tip of the iceberg of American rhetoricians.

After modern politics got its start, in the stump speeches of Bryan, and the Big Money approach of McKinley in 1896, the older art form steadily died. Throughout the 20th Century, newspapers, radio, and TV slowly strangled the art of political debate. Today, we have self-financed and pay-to-play campaigns, costing millions, run by people who couldn't argue their way out of a 19th Century saloon.

When you have an election with many candidates (like this recall campaign), however, it's possible to bring back the old art form, in a new guise. All you need is an ambitious media mogul and some money. First, you audition the candidates, and preselect the ones you want to compete. The competition can take any form. It can be a traditional debate, or it could be something else: a cookoff on a cooking channel, or a tournament on a golf channel, or perhaps a first date with a supermodel on a channel that focuses on relationships. The winner gets cash for their campaign, and then on to the next round of debates. The excellent free media exposure saves the candidates precious resources, the cash fuels the campaign, and the mogul exercises an indirect influence on politics. Cheaper than the current form of modern politics for the various candidates, the new approach strengthens candidates' rhetorical skills, and could well break the back of old-style campaigning. I want GSN's nod, just to see what I might be able to do with this new political toy. The future begins here, and it begins now! Farewell the old, stale, lesser-of-two-evils campaign (provided the old 2 candidate system can be dealt a death blow - that might be the hardest part).

After the interview, I had time to burn, so, following local custom, I energetically drove my rented car all around Hollywood. I visited a fabulous old bookstore on Melrose Ave., and wandered in-and-out of shops, up-and-down Melrose's wonderful youth-oriented shopping strip. What must it be like to go to high school at Fairfax or Hollywood High Schools, so close to all that glitters? If I was a teenage girl with shopaholic tendencies and a credit card, I'd probably go nuts. I drove past various interesting landmarks, like the Whiskey-a-Go-Go, the Will and Ariel Durant branch of the LA Public Library, the Valdez Guitar Shop, the CNN Tower, KNX Radio (I should have stopped in), and a zillion restaurants, travel agencies, and tattoo parlors. And, of course, despite the bustle, very few pedestrians. The sidewalks were eerily quiet, even by lazy Sacramento standards:

Artist : Persons Missing
Song : Walking In LA
Lyrics Available at Let's Sing It

Look ahead as we fast try to focus on it
I won't be fooled by a cheap cinematic trick
It must have been just a cardboard cut out of a man
Top forty cast off from the record stand

Walking in LA
Walking in LA
Nobody walks in LA
Walking in LA
Walkin in LA
Nobody walks in LA

I don't know could have been a lame jogger maybe
or someone just about to do the freeway strangler baby
Shopping cart pusher or maybe someone groovy
One things for sure he isn't starrin in a movie coz he's

Walking in LA
Walking in LA
Nobody walks in LA
Walking in LA
Walkin in LA
Nobody walks in LA

You won't see a cop walkin on the beat
You only see him drivin cars on the street
You won't see a kid walkin home from school
Their mothers pick them up in a car pool

Walking in LA
Walking in LA
Nobody walks in LA
Walking in LA
Walkin in LA
Nobody walks in LA

Could it be the smog's playing tricks on my eyes
Or it's a rollerskater in some kind of headphone disguise
Maybe somebody who just ran out of gas
Makin his way back to the pumps the best way he can

Walking in LA
Walking in LA
Nobody walks in LA
Walking in LA
Walkin in LA
Nobody walks in LA