Roby Jernigan, Campus Carrier Assistant Online Editor
With the recent release of the latest season of the Netflix original series, “House of Cards,” my excitement was through the roof. I’ve been an avid follower of “House of Cards” since the first season was released, and like any good college student, I spent my Sunday hidden in my room, binge-watching the newest installment until I could finish the last episode. I finished that night, and after 13 hours of politically-driven entertainment, I was forced to come to the realization that I would have to wait another year for a new season. Along with this realization came some questions that drove me to think about our government and how our real life politicians handle business and react to problems. The question that I couldn’t seem to stop asking myself was: are we living in a real life version of “House of Cards?”
Of course, many of you would be quick to answer no to that question, and some of you who have seen the show might scoff at the idea that this could be possible. But I think that there are some very stark comparisons that can be drawn between the show and our government.
The most prevalent comparison is the emphasis that is placed on who our president should be. First, we need to understand that this is a major problem in itself because the United States was not built on this principle. In history, we can see that Congress was the most popular instrument in the federal government. Because of a more locally-driven sense of community (and less anti-nationalism), it was very common for people to worry more about who their congressman was rather than who the president was, but we have slowly been making the change to a focus on the president. In “House of Cards,” Frank Underwood is portrayed as a character who will do anything to be the president no matter who he ruins in the process. The same could be said for our present-day politicians. The feeling of winning an election has been described as addictive, making many politicians blind to reality when it comes to how they should run a campaign.
Even further, there are times when Underwood blatantly disregards Congress and finds ways to advance his agenda through alternative methods. Some (including myself) would argue that President Obama has found ways around the Republican house (i.e. executive order) and more recently, the Republican senate. It is feasible to believe that the reason presidents have begun to use methods outside of the widely accepted is because the people of the United States put unreal pressure on the president and blame the office for the problems that occur in the country. In both the show and real life, Congress has threatened to prove the illegality of measures taken by Obama and Underwood, but are unsuccessful as of yet. Now obviously there are many differences in contrast to the aforementioned comparisons.
For one, Underwood sometimes resorts to heinous crimes (murder, assault) to get what he wants, which I am positive that recent presidents have not done. Another strange contrast that could be pointed out is that the Underwoods don’t have any children, and this is very uncommon for most politicians, especially presidents. In “House of Cards,” it proves the Underwoods’ dedication to becoming the most powerful couple in the world. I don’t think that there is any political power couple (especially in recent history) that chose not to have children purely for power reasons.
We must understand that “House of Cards” is a TV show, which means that the producers will do what they feel they need to in order to please their viewers. This makes the show a little more exaggerated than real life. These differences are big ones, but I think most people can agree with me that the comparisons are also important. While we may not be living in a perfect parallel of “House of Cards”, there are definitely similarities to be seen and there are changes that can be made. Between elections, foreign policy and economic problems, Netflix covers every aspect that they can in “House of Cards.”
Like any other TV show, its goal is to entertain, and if you are like me and enjoy politics, the entertainment is easy to come by. But at times, our own government can seem like a dramatization of the truth and can be equally entertaining.