By definition, a sideshow is a minor attraction attached to a carnival or circus made of bizarre and even hideous freak shows meant to titillate and entertain while liberating locals from their pocket change. Barkers enchant passersby with claims of the unusual and never-before-seen talents that await them inside the tent. Included among the sword swallowers, flame eaters, belly dancers, and peep shows are the grotesques— the sadly misshapen results of injury and birth defects, whose oddity is, in essence, their “talent.” The rubes drawn to these curiosities come away with the satisfaction that they have won the genetic lottery in comparison, and to justify their interloping on the misfortunes of others, they share the experience as a revelation. They, in effect, become part of the show.
The Republican Party has become a sideshow to the carnival that is Donald Trump. The rubes, “outside talkers” and unfortunates are a part of the grift and the grifted. In a description of the history of the ten-in-ones, the name given to the first sideshows at Coney Island, sideshow talents are described in more human terms:
Historically, sideshow managers recruited the unusual, the hideous, and the bizarre to capture the fascination of the public. Most “freaks” were ordinary people defined by their extraordinary appearances - victims of accidents, or those suffering from birth defects, disease or physical deformities. Far from being exploited, these “born different’ performers found a community within their shows, and an opportunity to make a living that might otherwise have been denied to them. The shows also included acts of amazing dexterity and unthinkable risk, including sword swallowers, fakirs, blockheads, strongmen, and fire-eaters.
Cue the most recent sideshow attraction that opened in the nation’s capital last week. Firebreather Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green reprised her previous performance at last year’s SOTU where she interrupted the President’s speech to call him a liar. This year she added further disrespect by wearing MAGA paraphernalia to the event and calling out “Say her name” as Biden was speaking on border issues. Biden held up the button Green had handed him as he entered the chamber that evening and returned fire with fire:
"If my predecessor is watching — instead of playing politics and pressuring members of Congress to block this bill, join me in telling Congress to pass it," Biden said in his speech.
"We can do it together."
Green’s mouth is coarse and loud but her costume speaks volumes about her now tired act. Biden entered her tent and got his dime’s worth.
Further down the midway, and over the left shoulder all evening during the SOTU speech was the Speaker-for-the-moment, Mike Johnson. His was a mime act alternating between disgust and quandary as he fought a losing battle to properly satisfy his audience of one at Mar-a-Lago. His deft sleight of hands, applauding but only where eyes could not see, left some wondering if Johnson was being hypnotically controlled by Dark Brandon's verbal malarkey charm ray. It’s a carny “thing.”
But the headliner on the night, even more curious than the aforementioned, was Katie Britt’s Coochie-Girl on a High Wire without a net act later reprised on SNL by Scarlett Johansson who, try as she may, couldn’t top the junior senator’s ability to shock.
Sideshows, in general, and the Republican diversion we witnessed last Thursday are cynically added distractions to the main event which, of course, is governance. They have made it a dirty word and bungle and spoil it because they have no desire to, because they have no clue how to, govern.
For those who watched Biden’s speech and who disagreed with his every word, at least they might agree that he had a plan. The sideshow represented by its impresario— a mishappen freak in his own right— is when you reduce it to its most elemental level, is a spoiled brat. He exhibits signs psychologists have called spoiled child syndrome. Signs that one is raising a highly spoiled child, according to educational psychologist Dr. Michelle Borba include:
- Not taking “no” for an answer: Your kid expects to get things their way and usually does. In fact, they’re the ones constantly telling you “no.”
- Being more into receiving than giving: Spoiled kids are unappreciative of what you do for them. Instead of saying “please” and “thank you,” their go-to word is “gimme.”
- Demanding things ASAP: They don’t consider that other people may be inconvenienced by their requests, and expect you to set your priorities aside and cater to them.
- Only thinking about themselves: They feel entitled and expect special favors. If another kid in class gets an MVP sticker, they get upset and say: “I deserve it more!”
- Never satisfied with what they have: They’re used to having all the toys in the world, but it’s never enough. They always want more, more, more.
— CNBC, Make It, “A child psychologist shares the 5 signs you’ve raised a ‘highly spoiled’ kid—and how parents can ‘undo’ it,” by Michelle Borba
The list when applied more universally motivates the sideshow, the carny underbelly of more mainstream entertainment. The “outside talkers” who swell the crowd, the performers who tolerate their audience, and the swindlers and cutpurses who work them over have a disdain for “the rubes” who support them.
Undoing the damage is the hard part. In the end, what the brat and the party of spoiled pols have in common is a need for power. They gain more by abusing the little they begin with. Doting parents and sycophantic “believers” urge them on. That is the recipe for disaster leading to the current GOP. Like doting parents they were groomed by Trump and his sideshow to serve his needs— apply symptom #1 thru #5.
P.T. Barnum was supposed to have said “There’s a sucker born every minute.” The current Republican Party believes that and has established a sideshow of sorts that includes the varied unfortunates and hucksters under their tent. The sideshow was in evidence last week in force as its weirdos and freaks were in full view attacking Joe Biden for competently delivering his State of the Union Address and deftly parrying MTG’s outbursts, Speaker Johnson’s eye rolls and headshakes, and the otherworldly Republican response by Katie Britt. The headliner was miles away on the campaign trail which now includes regular stops at courthouses and an occasional stop at his home at Mar-a-Lago to host a foreign dictator.
With Lara Trump taking over as co-chair of the Republican National Committee we are witnessing the final stages of the Trump family’s takeover of the party. His seven-year reign as its head has hollowed out the party leaving a rotted corpse. In real terms, the sideshow has taken over the main tent and owns the circus. No more McCains, forget the Romneys, and unburden the ghost of Lincoln who Trump would likely consider a loser— a sucker-- who took a bullet to save the Union.
It is showtime! Come one, come all!! See the bizarre and risqué, the fire-breathing women and shameless men who use tricks and mirrors to pick your pockets. Some born and some made, the freaks inhabit the upside-down world in which they are the normal ones. As Diane Arbus, a famed photographer whose art was in calling attention to offbeat and marginalized subjects her art embraced, once noted:
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.
— Diane Arbus
Sideshows require us to enter a world of smoke and mirrors populated by the odd characters some call “freaks.” The Republican Party is awash with freaks and their trauma. They share it with all of us just for kicks. The party has taken democracy and placed it in jeopardy because in their world its qualities are inconveniently normal.
For them, democracy no longer serves their needs…
was good while it lasted… had a great run!