Editorial: What’s Behind the Spectacle?

Note: the following editorial was written prior to last night's 2024 presidential campaign debate, but a postscript on the debate has been appended. Trigger warning: what you're about to read might make you sick.

One of the greatest features of American culture is our love of spectacle – hyped-up, often risky or death-defying, and often ridiculous. 

What would the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” look like without our P.T. Barnums, Wild Bill Hickocks, Harry Houdinis, “Wing-Walker” pilots, Flying Wallendas, Evel Knievels, and all the contemporary stunt-performing Guinness World Record holders and aspirants who roam our landscape?

Without the ever-crazier exploits of these daredevils, life would be duller, the loftiness of our goals diminished. As a people, we would be more risk-averse. 

At the turn of the Twentieth Century, “Let’s Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel,” was first suggested by Annie Edson Taylor, a retired schoolteacher from Bay City, Michigan. So, on her 63rd birthday – Oct. 24, 1901 – over she went! Fortunately, from inside her custom-made barrel of oak and iron, padded by a mattress within, she survived the 167-foot drop with only minor injuries.

Notwithstanding the importance of spectacle, however, some competitive endeavors detract rather than add to our culture. Less inspiring are repulsive acts.

In recent days, we’ve seen one physically “gross,” though somewhat comical competitive spectacle – a Guinness World Record-breaking hot-dog eating competition – serve as a cultural backdrop for another far more disturbing set of exploits, our 45th president’s desperate campaign to win the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

While many are entertained or distracted by these spectacles, a close scrutiny of what’s actually going on before our eyes turns the stomach.

But the “grossness” in the first instance is no match for the “repulsiveness” of the second. 

Let’s start with the sillier hot-dog eating spectacle. What could be more American?

In a “much-hyped competition,” the “world’s number-one-ranked eater,” Joey Chestnut, ate a world-record-breaking 83 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes onstage in Las Vegas for a live Netflix event Sept. 2, according to NPR. Chestnut crushed his archrival Takeru Kobayashi, who merely scarfed 66 hot-dogs in that time. Clearly, Kobayashi hadn’t eaten his Wheaties.

Now, dig beneath the surface a bit to consider the champion Chestnut’s exploits. 

And, notice how you start to feel ill.

Most people feel pretty bloated and full after racing to eat several hot-dogs in one sitting, or standing. Usually, when your stomach’s overloaded with salty, ultra-processed meat products, it lets you know with gastric discomfort, digestive muscular constrictions, dehydration, irritability, and embarrassing sounds from within. So, you decide not to do that again for a while. 

Now consider Chestnut’s case. After eating the 83 regulation hot-dogs and their buns – without being allowed to soak them in water first – he had but two digestive options. First, he could steal away from onlookers and vomit forth the 83 consumed hot-dogs and their buns. Or, he could metabolize from his stomach through his intestinal tract the barely-chewed hot-dogs over several days with all the attendant and exhausting peristaltic efforts such would entail. And we shouldn’t want to think about his many trips to the toilet. 

So, as it's happening, we gaze with amazement at the spectacle of Chestnut’s resounding victory, and perhaps admire his physical and mental training and preparation. But we don’t think about the actual spectacle too much, because it’s pretty gross. And soon we’re on to something new.

But, it’s harder to get away from the ongoing national spectacle of former President Trump’s current presidential campaign. 

Look closely at Trump’s behaviors and consider what must be going on inside the man’s brain – and it turns the stomach even more. 

Memories, thoughts, or plans of rape, sexual assault, grabbing, flirtation, recordings, lawsuits, courts, judges, juries, lust, gratification, cheating, divorce, testifying, falling asleep, felony indictments, product failures, demerits in military school, nepotism, bankruptcy, mugshots, backstabbers, silencing, revenge, defamation, avoiding STDs, mental agility tests, verbal abuse, lying, ex-wives, children, hacking, draft-dodging, pardoning, losing an election, bullying, mocking, threatening, dog whistling, assassination attempts, incest, branding, race-baiting, Jeffrey Epstein, self-promoting, hiring teams of lawyers and accountants, berating, gaslighting, undercutting, transactionality, double-crossing, tax fraud, doctors' notes, suing, litigating, FBI raids, firing employees, beauty pageant dressing rooms, negating contracts, blackmail, withholding payments, stalling courts, gag orders, parental disapproval, sibling rivalry, a niece's lawsuit, distorting, cross-dressing, prostitution, obstruction of justice, impeachments, January 6th, and hidden classified national security documents. 

Cravings for physical strength, courage, power, hair growth, tanning, cheering mobs, adulation, revenge, flattery, celebrity, junk food, golf expertise, intellectual prowess, and getting dolled up by makeup artists and hair stylists. 

Fearing germs, humiliation, debt-collection, ridicule, aging, vulnerability, weakness, bad investments, irrelevance, being a “loser,” books, reading, powerful women, military heroes, Gold Star families, veterans, immigrants, minorities, consolation of others, death, and sharks. 

After digesting all of this, wouldn't you rather eat 83 hot-dogs in 10 minutes?

And yet, the national spectacle of Trump's campaign continues.

Postscript: The 2024 Presidential Campaign Debate, Two Defining Moments

Immigrants Eating Your Dogs and Cats

Speaking of spectacle, in last night’s 2024 presidential campaign debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris and moderated by ABC News, two moments shed light on the apparently deteriorating state of Trump’s mind.

At 78, if elected, he will be the oldest serving American president. In July, President Biden, 81, dropped out of the presidential race following doubts about his cognitive abilities.

In the first instance – after Trump is goaded by Harris about his "boring" and "exhausting" political rallies where the former president drones on about "Hannibal Lecter" and "windmills causing cancer" – Trump simply goes off on the stupid idea that immigrants are snatching up and eating people’s dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. 

Yes, you heard that right.

But, wouldn’t such behaviors alleged by Trump be more trouble than their worth?

It’s hard to imagine – in an unknown, unfamiliar city, where help from strangers might be difficult to obtain, people mostly speak a foreign language, and furtive pets with unfamiliar names are a challenge to approach – that it would be very simple to locate, lure, capture, put to death, skin, and prepare to eat a person’s beloved pet cat or a dog and then, all the while undetected, perhaps save or store the edible remains for leftovers.

Wouldn’t it be easier simply to find the nearest Department of Social Services (DSS) to obtain Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits – formerly Food Stamps – and then visit the nearest grocery store to obtain nourishment? Or perhaps panhandle a few dollars and visit McDonald’s?

Roll the tape:

DAVID MUIR: Let me just ask, though, why did you try to kill that bill and successfully so? That would have put thousands of additional agents and officers on the border.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: First let me respond as to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies. There's no reason to go. And the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there. And then showing them in a different light. So, she can't talk about that. People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. That's because people want to take their country back. Our country is being lost. We're a failing nation. And it happened three and a half years ago. And what, what's going on here, you're going to end up in World War 3, just to go into another subject. What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country. And look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don't want to talk – not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating – they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, as far – the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. It's a very simple phrase. Make America great again. She's destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn't have a chance of success. Not only success. We'll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community --

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I've seen people on television...

Sputtering Non-Sequitors on Climate Change

In the second instance, Trump is asked about Climate Change – an issue of deep concern around the world, especially for younger voters. And he responds with an incoherent, rambling spew. 

In today’s post-debate analyses, Trump’s "answer" on Climate Change received little attention from pundits. However, it ought to have because his blurts not only displayed zero knowledge of Climate Change issues, but offered up a stream of ludicrous tangential points, hinting further at possible dementia.

Here’s the transcript: 

LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump, thank you. We have another issue that we'd like to get to that's important for a number of Americans, in particular younger voters, and that's climate change. President Trump, with regard to the environment, you say that we have to have clean air and clean water. Vice President Harris, you call climate change an existential threat. The question to you both tonight is what would you do to fight climate change? And Vice President Harris, we'll start with you. One minute for you each.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, the former president had said that climate change is a hoax. And what we know is that it is very real. You ask anyone who lives in a state who has experienced these extreme weather occurrences who now is either being denied home insurance or is being jacked up. You ask anybody who has been the victim of what that means in terms of losing their home, having nowhere to go. We know that we can actually deal with this issue. The young people of America care deeply about this issue. And I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels. We have created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs while I have been vice president. We have invested in clean energy to the point that we are opening up factories around the world. Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs. He lost manufacturing jobs. And I'm also proud to have the endorsement of the United Auto Workers and Shawn Fain, who also know that part of building a clean energy economy includes investing in American-made products, American automobiles. It includes growing what we can do around American manufacturing and opening up auto plants, not closing them like what happened under Donald Trump.

LINSEY DAVIS: Vice President Harris, thank you.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That didn't happen under Donald Trump. Let me just tell you, they lost 10,000 manufacturing jobs this last month. It's going – they're all leaving. They're building big auto plants in Mexico. In many cases owned by China. They're building these massive plants, and they think they're going to sell their cars into the United States because of these people. What they have given to China is unbelievable. But we're not going to let that. We'll put tariffs on those cars so they can't come into our country. Because they will kill the United Auto Workers and any auto worker, whether it's in Detroit or South Carolina or any other place. What they've done to business and manufacturing in this country is horrible. We have nothing because they refuse – you know, Biden doesn't go after people because supposedly China paid him millions of dollars. He's afraid to do it. Between him and his son. They get all this money from Ukraine. They get all this money from all of these different countries. And then you wonder why is he so loyal to this one, that one Ukraine, China? Why is he? Why did he get 3 1/2 million dollars from the mayor of Moscow's wife? Why did he get – why did she pay him 3 1/2 million dollars? This is a crooked administration, and they're selling our country down the tubes.

LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump, thank you.

Thanks for what, exactly?

By Christopher Jones