The New York Times - 12.09.2019

P2 NY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

W

HATEVER PERSONA Elizabeth Warren

hopes to project in her presidential cam-

paign, it is probably not that of a child

witch. But that is the persona that some of her biggest

fans have chosen for her.

Images of Hermione Granger, played in the

“Harry Potter” films by a young Emma Watson, mate-

rialize at Warren’s every move. Warren steps onto the

debate stage, and her fans craft tweets where

Hermione stands in as her, rolling her eyes at the boys

in wizarding class. Warren reads the whole Mueller

report, and Hermione smugly wags her wand. In one

extremely cursed tweet with zero likes, Warren’s face

is transplanted onto Hermione’s frame, posed along-

side Beto O’Rourke as Harry and Pete Buttigieg as

Ron Weasley. (fig. 1)

What is this strange chimera of presidential cam-

paigning: a candidate’s head on pop culture’s body? It

is the product of a great convergence between politics

and culture, citizenship and commerce, ideology and

aesthetics. Civic participation has been converted

seamlessly into consumer practice. It is democracy

reimagined as fandom, and it is now a dominant mode

of experiencing politics.

You can see it in the efforts to sort the candidates

into “Harry Potter” houses, converting the election to

a personality quiz in a children’s book, and in the

mash-up video that distills the 2020 candidates into

quotes from Michael Scott, the buffoonish boss of

“The Office.” (fig. 2) A photograph of three Congress-

women of color is published and instantly compared

to a Whitney Houston GIF, (fig. 3)as if women interro-

gating Michael Cohen are analogous to Houston con-

fronting her cheating boyfriend. Politicos of all stripes

Representatives

Alexandria Ocasio-

Cortez, Ayanna

Pressley and Rashida

Tlaib gaze upon

Michael Cohen.

UNITED

WE STAN

AND IT IS NOW A DOMINANT MODE OF EXPERIENCING POLITICS.

WE ARE WITNESSING A GREAT CONVERGENCE

BETWEEN POLICY AND CULTURE,

VALUES AND AESTHETICS,

CITIZENSHIP AND COMMERCIALISM.

THIS IS DEMOCRACY

REIMAGINED AS FANDOM,

Photograph by Chip

Somodevilla/Getty

Images

W

fig. 1

fig. 2

fig. 3

fig. 4