In the new, new, new economy, it’s important to have what the millenials like to call a “side hustle”–a part-time job to help you make ends meet–because you can’t be expected to pay for your student loans for that advanced degree in a field that you will never be able to find a job in, a thousand dollar smartphone, an unlimited data and talk plan, having two meals delivered to you every day, seven dollars in coffee every morning and Amazon Prime delivering everything else to you so you never have to shop on just one full-time gig.
I’d like to pick up a part-time job as one of the “concerned voters” in the myriad of political commercials flooding the TV airwaves right now. I don’t have any formal acting training–but I doubt anyone else in the ads does either. Most of them are county party leaders, or members of the League of Women Voters or they are the candidate’s family members. You didn’t really believe the candidate showed up at someone’s door asking to talk with them about “the issues” and there just happened to be a TV camera crew there ready to shoot, did you?
But I can certainly pretend to be scared or very concerned when the candidate talks about their opponent’s evil plans to “take away” some kind of program or “right”. I can also get a big smile on my face and nod approvingly as the candidate talks about how they are going to “fight for me” or make sure I “get what I deserve”. I can clap enthusiastically at the end of the commercial for “my candidate”. The crew can even use my backyard or my living room as the setting for an ad–even though the candidate would never come to my house–unless I was hosting a $1500 a person “cocktail social” for their campaign fund.
The only problem with my “side hustle” idea, is that there doesn’t seem to be a role for me in any political ads anymore. I’m a middle-age, middle-class white guy with no pre-existing medical conditions, no kids that had a porn-watching teacher and I’m not a veteran that got hooked on painkillers. This election isn’t “about me”–and may never be about me again. One party takes my support for granted and doesn’t even try to include me in the message–while the other would consider my presence in a TV ad a “micro-aggression threat” to their supporters.
I guess I’ll just have to rehearse my “frustrated” look so I can play the “before guy” in all of the erectile dysfunction ads that will return after the elections.
