Washington Theatre

I asked a question of a Melbourne based former colleague today.

It was the same question my eldest Son asked me yesterday.

The question is; “in a way, do you find it just a little bit funny?”.

I answered that I didn’t find it funny because it is actually serious, but added, “I can see why you are asking”.

My former colleague was more adamant and simply said “no, it is far too serious to be considered in any way funny”.

The question concerned the Political situation unfolding in the United States.

A few weeks ago, I messaged an Ex-Pat American asking her to confirm my suspicion that what we are reading and seeing out of Washington is actually a Situation Comedy series. Sadly, she couldn’t.

It is all extraordinary.

Embarrassingly, the first thing I do each morning after reviewing the New York and London stock markets is check to see what happened in the White House overnight. All too regularly, I find myself shaking my head and rolling my eyes in disbelief.

I mean, it can’t be real: can it?

There must be a bunch of writers sitting around thinking up the most ridiculous scenarios and then planning how this will be rolled out – producing and directing a performance.

Perhaps it goes like this:

1. Let’s first tweet this and then follow it up an hour later with a barrage of related but contradictory tweets.
2. We will give that an hour to be digested and then send out clarifying tweets, re contradicting and re formatting the previous messages.
3. Next, we will send out the lead comedian and call it a press briefing where we deny whatever has just been sent out and dismiss any conflict by calling it fake news.
4. On days when the Theatre Critics give us negative reviews, we will just accuse them of telling non-truths.

If only it was just theatre.

There have been a few reports suggesting what is going on is worse than Watergate. I don’t agree. My recollection of Watergate was of a deliberate and strategic illegal operation.

My take on the current situation is everything that has taken place has been with the belief that it is reasonable and legal – just naïve.

The Big Picture as I see it is the World leadership traditionally provided by the United States is becoming delinquent. If it continues, the void created will be filled by another. Will it be Europe, China, India?

If Washington was a sitcom, ratings would suffer and the show would be cancelled.

It is not a sitcom, but may well be a tragedy. Who knows how the final scene will play out.