Real odd question here since you were in the UK, Rick. Could a good novelty candidate like Count Binface help our political discourse in any way?
There's plenty of arguments against that: the only reason the Clacton by-election is so funny is because Nigel Farage is a fool and the other parties didn't field candidates, British humor is particularly unique and doesn't translate well, the two party system and other barriers to entry make it difficult to get attention, the US is too damn big for a novelty candidate to make such a splash. Et cetera, et cetera.
On the other hand, the only novelty candidate we've really had in the US is Vermin Supreme, so it could be that no one's ever sufficiently leaned into satire hard enough.
Joe Biden and team could have done so much more to stop Trump. I'll never understand why the left us this mess.
Real odd question here since you were in the UK, Rick. Could a good novelty candidate like Count Binface help our political discourse in any way?
There's plenty of arguments against that: the only reason the Clacton by-election is so funny is because Nigel Farage is a fool and the other parties didn't field candidates, British humor is particularly unique and doesn't translate well, the two party system and other barriers to entry make it difficult to get attention, the US is too damn big for a novelty candidate to make such a splash. Et cetera, et cetera.
On the other hand, the only novelty candidate we've really had in the US is Vermin Supreme, so it could be that no one's ever sufficiently leaned into satire hard enough.