One recent Trump-supporter meme equates him and Jesus. One cliché these days is to say that “politics is downstream from culture”—although people who hear that often think of art, literature, and other aspects of high culture. Yesterday, while thinking about these things, I ran across SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah’s 2022 interview of Jerry Springer, who moved from liberal Cincinnati mayor and news anchor to a 1991-2018 trash-talking television talk show that was hugely popular.
Obeidallah asked Springer if “what people let people get away with” on “The Jerry Springer Show” opened a path for Donald Trump. Springer responded, “Yes, there’s no question. The behavior of some of the people on the show is exactly Donald Trump.” Or, to quote a 2023 Sydney Morning Herald headline topping a column by Australia’s Nick Bryant, “Jerry Springer, carnival barker of a modern freak show, cleared way for Trump.”
As the new millennium began 24 years ago I was used to shows with hosts like Phil Donahue or Oprah Winfrey—then I saw Jerry Springer’s. Trash talk. Guests slugging each other. The audience chanting, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry.” Springer’s highlight reel would include white supremacists, a porn supremacist who said she had intercourse with 251 men in ten hours, and a man who married his horse.
Springer, born in 1944, died last year and may not have been thrilled by his legacy—but (in his defense) he had lost serious election attempts to become a member of the House of Representatives and Ohio’s governor. His initially mellow national talk show had low ratings until he found his calling as a fomenter of fights about adultery, transsexuality, hate groups, or anything else that could plausibly result in often-scripted shouting and violence on stage.
So Springer didn’t start the fire—he just fanned the flames. Trump, born in 1946, is now spraying on gasoline. Bryant wrote last year that “US political culture has unfortunately absorbed the worst traits of American popular culture.” Trump is exactly as Bryant described Springer’s show: “vulgar, foul-mouthed, gratuitously combative, unashamedly popular, defiantly anti-elitist and a massive ratings winner.”
Springer himself said, “Donald Trump stole my show and took it to the White House.” After saying early and often that politics is downstream from culture, I should have grasped the political implications of Springer’s success, but did not. Trump supporters who portray their leader as Jesus should recognize Springer as John the Baptist. ###
Boom!