Ryan Murphy’s political satire “The Politician” follows Payton Hobert’s quest to become the future president of the United States. The first season, which follows his running for student body president at a Santa Barbra preparatory school, focuses on the sheer ridiculousness and incivility of recent politics. Running against the class favorite River Barkley, Payton decides to make a cancer patient (who is really a victim of Munchausen by Proxy Disorder) his VP in an attempt to please the study body. In an act of what can only be categorized as retaliation, River chooses a gender-nonconforming black student as his VP candidate. What is revealed rather quickly in the show is that Payton and River are in a nonpublic relationship together.
This series poses the question of whether justified, civil politics is possible? The decisions made by the characters of the show grapple with the idea of how to best “look” the role of a politician rather than enacting real change. While a political satire, the show both argues for and against the surrendering of one’s ethics for the sake of getting what they want. Is doing the “wrong” thing in the moment plausible for the sake achieving what is “right” later?
