On last Tuesday night's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Colbert told Stewart he had "decided to officially consider whether or not [he would] announce" his candidacy for President of the United States; but said that he would make the announcement on a more prestigious show. Fifteen minutes later, on his own show, Colbert announced that he would be running for president as a "favorite son" candidate in his home state of South Carolina. Democrat or a Republican? If Colbert has his way, he will be on both ballots.
Though it may seem as if it's all just a huge joke, Colbert and his staff have adopted at least a semblance of seriousness. Before he made the big announcement, Colbert's staff contacted both the Democratic and Republican committees in South Carolina. To get his name on the Democratic ballot, he will have to pay a filing fee of $2,500 or gather 3,000 signatures. The Republican committee requires that he pay the $35,000 filing fee. With overwhelming support from "Colbert Nation," neither one of these requirements seems out of Colbert's reach. Assuming that Colbert can make his way onto the ballot of one or both parties, how many people will actually vote for him? Should you vote for him? And most importantly, is a Colbert candidacy good for politics?
Already, the countless constituents of "Colbert Nation" have started arraying themselves behind their hero's cause. In only six days, the newly created "1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T. Colbert" Facebook group has garnered over 478,000 members, nearly 100,000 more than the months-old "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)" group. The Colbert group is growing so rapidly that Facebook has to keep shutting it down. According to the South Carolinian newspaper The State, Colbert's solicitation to viewers to donate to a Web site that helps state schoolteachers has raised more than $13,000-much more than the amounts raised in the name of Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Clearly, many people are taking Colbert seriously. Many members of "Colbert Nation" who are registered to vote in South Carolina are going to vote for him. Granted, the majority of Colbert's fans do not live in South Carolina, some may be too young to vote and others may not be registered. However, some who are registered to vote will vote for him, and some who are not registered will get registered precisely so that they can vote for him. If Colbert fills out the necessary paperwork to be a write-in candidate in other states, registered voters in other states will be able to vote for Colbert; the Facebook group is urging non-South Carolinians to do this.
As much as I love Stephen Colbert, he will not be receiving my vote-I don't live in South Carolina, and I wouldn't vote for him if I did-and he should not receive yours either, for one reason: He is not serious!
If Colbert ever considered running for president seriously with the intention of winning, I would seriously consider voting for him. He is brilliant, honest, politically well-informed and concerned about the future of our country. Though he is only an entertainment star, his job in entertainment deals almost exclusively with politics; he would certainly be much more qualified than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan were when they first ran for public office. All of this is beside the point because Colbert does not seriously want to become president.
Colbert's candidacy is an elaborate satire of the political process and a big joke intended to boost the ratings of "The Colbert Report" and to increase sales of his recently released book, "I am America (And So Can You!)." In an interview on Sunday, Colbert said, "I don't want to be president. I want to run for president. There's a difference." If Colbert really wanted to be president, he would be attempting to get on the ballots in more than just his home state of South Carolina, and he almost certainly would not be trying to run as both a Republican and a Democrat. As Colbert also said in Sunday's interview, he is running as both "because [he]'d like to lose twice."
A vote for Colbert, then, can be thought of as a "wasted" vote. It is a vote that could have been cast for a serious presidential candidate who actually stands a chance of winning. Since it is probably safe to say most Colbert fans are young, liberal Democrats, the candidates who rely most on this voting block stand to lose the most from a Colbert candidacy. The first candidate who comes to mind is Barack Obama.
The negative consequence of "wasted" votes will be far outweighed by the positive effects a Colbert candidacy will have on politics as a whole. First of all, the number of votes that Obama and others lose to Colbert will probably be negligible. Those who care enough about politics to have planned to vote in the primaries before Colbert entered will realize that a vote for Colbert is a "wasted" vote and will hurt the candidate they had planned on supporting. The majority of people who end up voting for Colbert in the primaries will be people who were not planning on voting in the primaries in the first place. So these votes for Colbert are not really wasted votes because they would not even have been cast otherwise.
This raises yet another positive consequence of a Colbert candidacy: better primary voter turnout. Even if voters support a candidate who stands no chance of winning, they are at least involving themselves in the political process. Seen in this light, a vote for Colbert does serve a purpose. It acts as a wake-up call to "real" politicians and to the political process as a whole. If people who ordinarily would not vote at all are turning out in droves to support a comedian, what does that say about our politicians?
Most importantly, a Colbert candidacy is a great thing for politics because, just like his show, Colbert's candidacy will shine a larger-than-life spotlight on all that is wrong with our election process. Just in the first few days of his campaign, Colbert has already poked fun at the inevitable pre-campaign book ("I Am America (And So Can You!)"), the candidates' transparent and insincere attempts to look like "average Joes" (Colbert puts his feet up on a bale of hay and cracks open a beer on "The Daily Show"), and the corruption of campaign financing (Doritos officially sponsors Colbert's campaign … coverage).
If voters pay close attention to the joke that is Colbert's campaign, they will hopefully recognize that it is jarringly similar to most other "real" campaigns. In many ways, our election process has become a joke. If Colbert can open more people's eyes to the insincerity and corruption in "real" politics, then he will do society a great service. We can only hope our "real" politicians play close attention, and perhaps will be inspired to clean up their own acts.
Whether he deserves your vote or not and whether his campaign is great or horrible for politics, one thing is certain about Stephen Colbert running for president: It's the funniest thing to happen to politics since … well, since "The Colbert Report."
On last Tuesday night's Daily Show with Jon Stewart (italics), Colbert told Stewart he had "decided to officially consider whether or not [he would] announce" his candidacy for President of the United States but said that he would make the announcement on a more prestigious show. Fifteen minutes later, on his own show, Colbert announced that he would be running for President as a "favorite son" candidate in his home state of South Carolina. Democrat or a Republican? If Colbert has his way, he will be on both (italics) ballots.
Though it may seem as if it's all just a huge joke, Colbert and his staff have at least adopted a semblance of seriousness. Before he made the big announcement, Colbert's staff contacted both South Carolina's Democratic and its Republican committees. To get his name on the Democratic ballot, he will have to pay a filing fee of $2,500 or gather 3,000 signatures. The Republican committee requires only that he pay the $35,000 filing fee. With overwhelming support from "Colbert Nation," neither one of these requirements seems out of Colbert's reach.
Assuming Colbert can make his way onto the ballot of one or both parties, how many people will actually vote for him? Should you (italics) vote for him? Even more importantly, is a Colbert candidacy good for politics?
Already, the countless constituents of "Colbert Nation" have started arraying themselves behind their hero's cause. In only six days, the newly-created "1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T. Colbert" Facebook group has garnered over 478,000 members, nearly 100,000 more than the months-old "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)" group; the group is growing so rapidly that Facebook needs to keep shutting it down. According to the South Carolinian newspaper The State, Colbert's solicitation to viewers to donate to a website that helps state schoolteachers has raised more than $13,000 – much more than the amounts raised in the name of Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Clearly, many people are taking Colbert seriously. Many members of "Colbert Nation" who are registered to vote in South Carolina are going to vote for him. Granted, the majority of Colbert's fans do not live in South Carolina, some may be too young to vote, and some may just not be registered to vote. However, some that are registered to vote will vote for him, and some that are not registered will get registered precisely so that they can vote for him. If Colbert fills out the necessary paperwork to be a write-in candidate in other states, registered voters in other states will be able to vote for Colbert; that is what the Facebook group is urging non-South Carolinians to do.
As much as I love Stephen Colbert, though, he will not be receiving my vote (I don't live in South Carolina, but I wouldn't vote for him if I did), and he should not receive yours either for one reason, if for no others: he is not serious!
If Stephen Colbert ever seriously considered running for president with the intention of winning, I would seriously consider voting for him. He is brilliant, honest, politically well-informed, and concerned about the future of our country. Though he is only an entertainment star, his job in entertainment deals almost exclusively with politics; he would certainly be much more qualified than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan were when they first ran for public office. All of this is beside the point though because Colbert does not seriously want to become president.
Colbert's candidacy is an elaborate satire of the political process and a big joke intended to boost ratings of The Colbert Report and increase sales of his recently-released book, I am America (And So Can You!). In an interview on Sunday, Colbert said himself, "I don't want to be president. I want to run for president. There's a difference." Also, if he really wanted to be president, he would be attempting to get on the ballots in more than just his home state of South Carolina, and he probably would not be trying to run as both a Republican and a Democrat. As he also said in Sunday's interview, he is running as both "because [he]'d like to lose twice."
A vote for Colbert, then, can be thought of as a "wasted" vote. It is a vote that could have been cast for a serious presidential candidate who actually stands a chance at winning. Since it's probably safe to say most Colbert fans are young, liberal Democrats, then the candidates who rely most on this voting bloc stand to lose the most from a Colbert candidacy; the first candidate that comes to mind is Barack Obama. Obama seems more likely to lose votes to Colbert than any of the other primary candidates, Republican or Democrat.
However, the negative consequence of "wasted" votes will be far outweighed by the positive effects a Colbert candidacy will have on politics as a whole. First of all, the amount of votes that Obama and others lose to Colbert will probably be negligible. Those who care enough about politics to have planned to vote in the primaries before Colbert entered will realize that a vote for Colbert is a "wasted" vote and would hurt the candidate they had planned on supporting, so they will not vote for Colbert. The majority of people that end up voting for Colbert in the primaries will be people that were not planning on voting in the primaries in the first place. Looked at in this way, these votes for Colbert are not really wasted votes because they would not even have been cast otherwise.
This evidences yet another positive consequence of a Colbert candidacy: better primary voter turnout. Even if voters support a candidate who stands no chance of winning, at least they are involving themselves in the political process. A vote for Colbert does serve a purpose. It acts as a wake up call to "real" politicians and to the political process as a whole. If people who ordinarily would not vote at all are turning out in droves to support a comedian, what does that say about our politicians?
Most importantly, a Colbert candidacy is a great thing for politics because, just like his show, Colbert's candidacy will shine a larger than life spotlight on all that is wrong with our election process. Just in the first few days of his campaign, Colbert's antics have served as pointed reminders of the inevitability of the pre-campaign book (I Am America (And So Can You!)), the candidates' transparent and insincere attempts to look like "average Joes" (Colbert puts his feet up on a bale of hay and cracks open a beer on the Daily Show), and the corruption of campaign financing (Doritos officially sponsors Colbert's campaign…coverage).
If voters pay close attention to the joke that is Colbert's campaign, hopefully they will recognize it is jarringly similar to most other "real" campaigns. In many ways, our election process has become a joke. If Colbert can open more people's eyes to the insincerity and corruption in "real" politics, then he has done society a great service. We can only hope our "real" politicians play close attention, too; maybe they will be inspired to clean up their own acts.
Whether Colbert deserves your vote or not and whether his campaign is great for politics or horrible, one thing is certain about Stephen Colbert running for president: it's the funniest thing to happen to politics since…well, since The Colbert Report.