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So you think you aren't interested in politics, do you? Maybe you even think you hate politics. This course just may get you to change your mind.
Over the years, Hollywood has occasionally focused its attention on American politics, politicians, and elections, and in this presidential election year, we will do the same, selecting from the following films to explore how Hollywood's fictional, fictionalized, and documentary films represent and comment on American politics -- and compare these representations with political events and people in the real world:
Just how strange can real-life US politics be?
How's this for starters? California has had two famous Hollywood actors serve as governor: Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The first, Ronald Reagan, went on to serve two terms as the US President. In that office,he came to be known as "the Teflon president" because of his seeming immunity to scandals affecting those around him.
In 2003, the governor of California, Gray Davis, was recalled (removed from office) in a special election and replaced by the second Hollywood star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to the "Governator", his decision to run for governor of the state with the eighth largest economy in the world was anything but well-considered:
The recall happens and people are asking me, ‘What are you going to do?’ I thought about it but decided I wasn’t going to do it. I told Maria I wasn’t running. I told everyone I wasn’t running. I wasn’t running. I just thought [en route to the Tonight Show], This will freak everyone out. It’ll be so funny. I’ll announce that I am running. I told Leno I was running. And two months later I was governor. What the fuck is that? All these people are asking me, ‘What’s your plan? Who’s on your staff?’ I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have a staff. I wasn’t running until I went on Jay Leno. (Vanity Fair, November 2011).
Schwarzenegger had never held office and his political views were largely unknown, but he was the one candidate in a crowded field whose name was a household word.
No sooner had the "Governator" taken office than people started talking about amending the US Constitution to allow him (a foreign-born citizen) to run for president. If that's not strange enough, the man who succeeded Schwarzenegger as governor is Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr., a former Jesuit priest, and the son of the governor who preceded Ronald Reagan: Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Sr.
California is also home to the largest financial scandal in US election history. Kinde Durkee, who has served as treasurer for many California-based Democratic politicians and campaign organizations, has now been accused of embezzling more than 8 million dollars over several years from the 700-odd bank accounts she controlled. US Senator Diane Feinstein alone has lost some 5 million dollars.
On the national level, consider the 2000 presidential election, which pitted Al Gore against George Bush, and which was arguably the most irregularity-plagued presidential election in US history. The outcome of that election hung in the balance as the votes were being counted in Florida, the state whose governor just happened to be George Bush's brother.
In some ways, one of the most interesting developments in the past few years has been the rise of the Tea Party movement, which supported a number of Republican candidates for Congressional seats in the 2010 mid-term elections and managed to get most of them elected. Their fiscal conservatism and unwillingness to compromise has led to significant friction within the Republican Party, usually the more unified of the two main political parties. The one rallying point that unites the party is their absolute, unwavering determination to defeat all of President Obama's initiatives and to ensure that he remains a one-term president. Such personalizing of a presidential campaign is at the very least unusual, if not unprecedented.
Somewhat less exciting than the 2008 Democratic primaries, this year's Republican primary season has already trimmed a field of ten would-be candidates down to four "survivors": Mitt Romney (the multi-millionaire former governor of Massachusetts), Rick Santorum (a fiscally and socially conservative "hawk" and former US Senator from Pennsylvania), Ron Paul (US Congressman from Texas and the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party Movement), and Newt Gingrich (former US Congressman from Georgia and former US Speaker of the House). Who will ultimately win the Republican nomination? Who will he pick as his vice-presidential running mate? Will they succeed in limiting President Obama to a single term in office?
To give you an idea of some of the topics the films and the real-world people and events invite us to examine more closely, I have prepared a list (available in 
).
Semester Overview:
First Class Meeting: Week beginning 16 April
Last Class Meeting: Week beginning 16 July
No class meetings:– Whit Monday: 28 May
– Reading Week: 4 - 8 June
Directory of Political Parties
FactCheck.org (A Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center)
PolitiFact.com (Tampa Bay Times fact-checking site)
New York Times Special Report: Examining the Florida Vote
Ralph Nader interview on the 2000 Florida recount
C-SPAN Real-Video streamed broadcasts, live and archived. Covers the full range of US political issues under the following headings: • Business/Economy • Defense Policy • Education • International • Laws/Courts • Media • Politics • Social Policy • Taxes & Spending • Technology/Science. Great listening comprehension practice material, in addition to being THE source for live coverage of sessions of the US Congress.
C-SPAN Congressional Glossary. A hypertext glossary of words and expressions used in Congress and by reporters and writers covering Congress. Includes parliamentary expressions.
C-SPAN (A page on various aspects of Congress)
More to come!
Self-Assessment
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