The great Colin Powell email hack of 2016 has been such a gift: It brought us the phrase “dicking bimbos” and illuminated the statesman’s views of Republican nominee Donald Trump as a “national disgrace” and “international pariah.” Powell’s eloquent turns of phrase and nonstop tea-spilling make for a genuinely delightful read, and it’s difficult to keep from laughing when he compares Trump to talk show host Jerry Springer.
"GOP campaigns are a reality show with Trump playing the role of Jerry Springer," Powell wrote in a 2015 email, according to BuzzFeed. "So, I don't watch or linger on any of it. They will pass."
Springer himself has noted the similarities between The Jerry Springer Show and today’s Republican Party, telling Men’s Journal earlier this month:
I tweeted that to the Republican Party: "If you're going to do my show, you have to pay me." But my honest reaction was, "Oh, my God, this is the schoolyard when I was in junior high." We're talking about the leader of the free world, and they're talking about the size of Donald Trump's, you know . . . his body part? Everyone was embarrassed. It was like, "What if the world is watching this? What if our kids are watching?"
The talk show gawd even pinned the tweet:
The RNC Convention is just a parody of my show. Even the chanting. This is not how we run a country!
He and Powell are absolutely right—when it comes down to it, there are plenty of similarities between Springer and the GOP, especially Trump’s campaign.
In the below video, “You Slept With My Stripper Sister,” you can hear the “Jerry” chant that evokes the same dizzying Mr. Krabs feeling as “Build that wall” ones from Trump rallies. You know these cheers are often a prelude to violence, but instead of a slapfest between sisters, Trump events have seen peaceful black protesters attacked, a 69-year-old woman punched, and a 15-year-old girl groped and pepper-sprayed. Even Trump’s creepy “I’d do my daughter” vibes fit right into the Springer show.
In most other reality shows, guests are discouraged from or even escorted out for fighting, but on Springer, violence is expected—there’s even a boxing bell! Likewise, while most candidates’ rallies aren’t hotspots for riots, Trump straight up incites violence.
“One of the reasons people get such pleasure from [The Jerry Springer Show] is the schadenfreude of gloating at how pathetic most of the guests are,” pop-culture wiki TV Tropes notes. This reductive view is similarly used to paint Trump supporters as gun-toting racists without much nuance or sympathy for the poor and disenfranchised folks who truly believe that pinning their hopes on the billionaire “outsider” might offer them any reprieve.
But Trump’s complete lack of political experience doesn’t actually translate to policies that might help America’s most vulnerable populations. Springer, on the other hand, believes “picking on people because of their race or their religion or where they’re from, [is] so un-American.”
“I mean the whole concept of saying, ‘Let’s Make America Great Again’ that is totally not what America is supposed to be about,” Springer said in a Breakfast Club interview. “Our symbol is the Statue of Liberty, not a wall. We’ve gone around the world saying, ‘Tear down this wall.’ What are you gonna do? Have America be a fortress?”
Our symbol is the Statue of Liberty, not a wall. We’ve gone around the world saying, ‘Tear down this wall.’ What are you gonna do? Have America be a fortress?
While dragging Trump seems like the great American pastime, the “King of Trash TV” actually has the political experience to back it up.
Springer spearheaded the movement in Ohio to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 when he was just 25 years old, according to Biography. He ran for Congress in Ohio in 1970 and nearly beat Republican incumbent Donald Clancy. The next year, he won a seat on the Cincinnati City Council and served five terms before becoming mayor when he was 33 years old. He served two terms as Cincinnati mayor, and then started his career in reality television: “After an unsuccessful bid for governor of Ohio in 1982, Springer was courted by several networks, ultimately signing with the Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT.” Today, he makes rounds speaking at college campuses as well as Democratic rallies.
While it’s easy to reduce both Trump and Springer to shit stirrers, a career examination—political and otherwise—would easily conclude that Springer makes a way better presidential candidate. At least he's capable of self-reflection.
