BEING THERE AND WHERE

Finally, in conclusion, let me just say this. ~ Peter Sellers 

The president’s delayed SOTU (acronymic Washington slang for the State of the Union speech) was eviscerated in a recent Slate story, stating he said nothing new and pretty much had nothing to say. “Trump was just a piece of furniture along the wall [not his wall] of a room. He was just … there.“

This last sentence whisked me away on a return voyage to Peter Sellers’ “Being There: a story of chance,” the brilliant 1979 satiric commentary on Washington politics. Being There’s trailer is here.

Peter Sellers skillfully plays the movie’s simpleton protagonist, Chance the Gardener, who also assumes the name Chauncey Gardiner. Chauncey is a truly passive non-agressive schlub who lives in Washington, D.C. and tends to his rich employer’s garden. When he’s not gardening, his only other activity is watching TV. His world is his garden, literally. The movie follows Chauncey through a series of wholly unexpected, astonishing circumstances as he becomes a confidante of the US President. The proposition of the movie is: Could a person of seemingly diminished intelligence ascend to the heights of political power in the US? Peter Sellers provides us with the unsettling answer based on his dexterous portrayal of Chauncey.

In one of the movie’s scenes the president asks Chauncey “Do you think we can stimulate [economic] growth through temporary incentives?” After pausing for a long time (it’s actually just ten seconds), Chauncey latches onto the word growth, which he recognizes, and then slowly replies, “As long as the roots are not severed, all is well, and all will be well in the garden. In a garden, growth has its season. First comes Spring and Summer. But then we have Fall and Winter. Then we get Spring and Summer again.”

The president is initially dumbfounded by Chauncey’s answer that appears utterly nonresponsive. But after the president’s colleague misinterprets Chauncey’s declaration as a profound comment on economic growth, by saying “We welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of the economy.” The president finally declares, “Well Mr. Gardiner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time. I admire your good, solid sense. That’s precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.” And thus, the schlub becomes the savant in the nation’s vain political stratosphere.

Sellers' performance of Chance/Chauncey was universally praised by critics and audiences. Sellers commented on his role as Chance/Chauncey, “My ambition in the cinema, since I came across it, was to play Chance. I have realized that ambition, and so I have no more.” He died the year after the picture was released.

Is cinematic history now repeating itself, or at least rhyming, in real life 40 years later? Can Chauncey be a representation of President #45? After dutiful deliberation, I’d say yes. Except that Chauncey has none of #45’s singular egotism, bellicose intransience, unfounded sense of self-worth, profound untruthfulness or thin skin. The two do share, however, an extraordinary inability to see the actual world beyond one solitary, restricted perspective. Chauncey’s sole perspective is as a gardener; #45’s seems to be his bombastic conceit. Chauncey's and #45's rise to prominence is likely due in no small part to Washington's miasmatic atmosphere. 

It’s not now so much about if #45 is being there as is he being where? We all know where his world is defined by: falsehood, prejudice, extremism and ego. Chauncey’s world is defined by the plants he carefully tends. Fewer and fewer Americans want #45 to be where he is. Just like Chauncey, I believe #45 continues to walk on ever-thinning ice towards his just demise. But that future requires help.

Can Dems help by providing a broadly-appealing, alternative candidate and pathway back to what in pre-Trumpian times passed as workable normalcy? I certainly hope so for all our sakes. I believe the Dems’ pathway should not rest on fundamentally and radically expanding the role of government or by mandating Senatorial impeachment proceedings. Instead, this pathway rests on American citizens decisively voting #45 out of office on Nov. 3, 2020; and having him not being there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Jan. 20, 2021.