Learning to Appreciate the Arts

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

Not everyone appreciates the entertainment value of watching the body politic.  But I do.  I stand hands on hips, amazed by the intricate movements each player contributes to their tap dance around the truth.  I listen to their spin, enthralled by the rhythm and stunned by their ability to stand upon the dais and look us in the eyes.  For all its pleasures though, most dedicated fans recognize the elements of tragedy that underlie every production.  There may be action and there will most certainly be humor; but the end is always the same: hubris and self-importance combine to bring about tragedy.  In the audience we may see it coming, but our recognition is too late to avert the inevitable.

Residents of California have been blessed with a double header as of late; two shows for the price of one.  True aficionados of this delicate art form will not only revel in the production value both shows offer, but the clever juxtaposition between them – the contrasting views of power they represent.

On the main stage we find the Federal Players and their prime-time rendition of The King and I.  The legislative branch of democracy writes a blank check and hands it to King Henry (Paulson) and his trusty side-kick President Bush.  They spend it on assorted items, many never contemplated when the check was written.  The legislature must be commended, however, for its heartfelt portrayal of the country bumpkins who did not see any of this coming.  In the final act, a chagrined upper house – the Senate – reasserts itself.  They choose not to spend money they don’t have on an industry that does not deserve it.  (This decision aligns with the wishes of the audience, but we assume the relationship to be coincidental more than causal.)  At the last moment: a twist!  We see the King spending the money anyway!  He usurps the Legislature’s constitutional and historical role as the means of appropriation.  It is a dramatic twist, shocking in its brazen contempt for law.  As the curtain comes down the audience is too dazzled by it all to recognize the depth of the tragedy they have just witnessed.

On the secondary stages we find the State Players.  If you travel to the “Will Never Be Ready for Prime Time” tent you find the players particular to California, a state which all art patrons know to be the source of every decent slapstick comedy in the past thirty years.  Tonight’s presentation finds a Legislature stymied by the people’s will.  A proposition that allows tax hikes only upon a two-thirds vote of the house and senate prevents them from a continuous bacchanal of taxing and spending.  Like Nero, they fiddle while California burns.  There is a comic element in the beginning as the populace, forced to tighten their belts and deal with tremendous cuts to their budget, watches a government – unwilling to employ a budget – throw temper tantrums over their denied access to the public’s ever thinning wallets. But the comedy turns dark when the legislature realizes they can redefine taxes as fees.  For instance: define all gasoline tax as a fee and remove the fee.  Now they can raise income tax, sales tax plus a multitude of other taxes and offset it all by the elimination of the gasoline tax.  Thus they have a revenue-neutral tax bill which, in their humble opinion, does not fall under the two-thirds law enacted to prevent them from doing that which they have done.  The tragedy: the gasoline fee was immediately reinstated… and raised.  All of this was done with a straight and earnest face.  Afterall, for the play to succeed the audience must believe.

Great entertainment indeed.  A federal King usurping the power of the legislature and a state legislature usurping the power of the people – that’s quite a bit of power being transferred.  As an ardent fan of the tragic form I am enthralled by the drama of it all, but as a member of the audience I wonder how much power is left to us and suddenly saddened by the tragedy of it all.