Recently, we’ve seen a lot of Hollywood style drama in politics. So what events am I talking about? Let’s go through them one by one…

Shoot to Kill

In mid July we found out that the CIA was trying to develop a program to assassinate high value Al-Queda targets. It sounds pretty bad ass - the Wall Street Journal even compared it to the Bourne movie franchise with Matt Damon. So what’s all the fuss about then? Well, Dick Cheney was in the mix, so people are up in arms. Apparently, Dick ordered the CIA to conceal the program from congress, which several lawmakers, including Diane Feinstein, are calling illegal. Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy are now calling for an investigation into Dick’s role in covering this program up. Obama wants to move on and I’m with him…let’s focus on more pressing issues like North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear programs, Health Care, and an international energy/climate crisis. Either way, Trey Parker and Matt Stone captured the spirit of hit squads in their puppet film, Team America: World Police. 

Check out this clip:

Anyway, this film is hilarious and ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Also make sure to check out my vlog on whether or not we should still be talking about this issue. It was featured on CNN:

Don’t be such a dick, Cheney! 

Sex Scandalous

If there’s one thing Democrats and Republicans have in common it’s sex and hypocrisy. Let’s compare Mark Sanford’s affair to Elliot Spitzer’s. To begin, they were both govenors - Mark is the  sitting Republican Governor of South Carolina and Elliot was the Governor of New York. They both had squeaky clean public images, which makes their affairs seem a lot more hypocritical…While Elliot was banging a prostitute, Mark was busy falling in love with one (well, she’s not technically a prostitute). Mark fell so hard that he went awol and held long rambling press conferences that confused anyone who watched them. We don’t need to get into all of the juicy details of their affairs, but I do want to say that I think sex scandals can be a good thing for politics by peeking public interest. 

Finally, something politicians can agree on…

Justice served up by a comedian

The hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor began on Monday, July 13th. Recently, these hearings have gotten a lot more boring. In 1987, Ronald Reagan’s nominee Robert Bork was defeated (or “borked”) for attempting to disclose and defend his views. Ever since then, nominees have been instructed to play it safe and not reveal anything about their judicial philosophy. Sotomayor’s hearing was no different…It’s really too bad because like I said above a little scandal is a good thing for politics…One senator who tried to bring a little levity to the situation was former comedian Al Franken. He asked her a question, and when she started to answer it, he cut her off saying: “so that means you’re not going to tell us”.

To wrap things up, sex/controversy sells and politics could use a little Hollywood style glamor. 

Mark Korshak is the Creator and Executive Producer of Project Youthanize. He is the writer and producer of the “Youthanized” doc shorts, the “Millennial News Briefs” series, and “The Civic Life” documentary. He is also the creative editor of projectyouthanize.org.