Ellen Murphy: Spring politics bring to mind an earlier farce

With GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s determination to upend the Republican Party, which is itself dedicated to besmirching the Barack Obama presidency, I’m reminded of an eerily familiar story.

This is “The Producers” on a larger, politically scrambled stage.

In the play, producer Max Bialystock and accountant Leo Bloom cook up the idea for a destined-to-flop musical farce, claiming no liability for, yet reaping the financial benefits of, the havoc to ensue when their inappropriate tribute to Adolf Hitler should certainly fail. They have a cynical plan to fudge the details and sign investors, and keep the money when the show flops . Donors are wealthy, lonely older ladies who fall for the well-oiled Bialystock, making promises he has no intention of keeping.

Even though Trump doesn’t solicit funding, he also pulls the wool over the eyes of his clueless backers. Somehow, by insulting ethnic groups and making blanket, racist and sexist comments, he speaks to disenfranchised groups who say they’ve been left behind and see his successes as their future. He has undefined “plans” to fix a country that is not broken. His crowds spew hateful mottos, defending a status quo they think is still viable, though it’s only representative of a past that is well behind us.

This politically inexperienced braggart, unwelcome in his own party, popularly escalates in the presidential race, feeding off these “angry” supporters. His entire campaign is focused on himself, not on the office he seeks. The media are so completely sucked into a Barnum-esque freak show that they can’t turn their cameras from it. His followers uniformly thrust their arms upward in pledging allegiance to … him.

Like Bloom and Bialystock, everything Trump does should lead to failure,yet stays out front.

He is pitted against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, playing an earnest do-gooder with both political cred and suspicious baggage, which she strives to overcome by dismissing it. She amasses delegates in hopes of making history by being elected the first female president. She has been here before and she knows the lay of the land. She seems a shoo-in, at least.

The voting public is to decide whether or not the narcissistic self-described successful businessman, stubbornly clinging to his bad comb-over and inability to take notes or criticism, is going to triumph over the well-known quantity of Clinton, belting her heart out in her final solo. This election pits moral bankruptcy against the inevitability of a pre-fitted tiara: it’s a lose-lose situation, which nonetheless will have a winner.

The secondary characters never quite rise to the level of headliners. The most interesting and progressive, Indie-crat Sen. Bernie Sanders, is a 74-year-old amiable curmudgeon we’d love to have lunch with, to pick his brain and steal his ideas. Somewhat in the wings lurks Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a smarmy mix of Texas hubris and alarmist sanctimony, sullenly poised as a dark horse of extremely last resort. Running a distant third is Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who continues to be politely shoved aside in the tumult because he insists on keeping a civil tone in his mild pursuit of the presidency. Yawn, say us, as we troll Twitter for the next sensational spousal insult or soft-porn interaction.

The story takes a neck-breaking swerve back to center stage when conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia dies unexpectedly, and our hero, twice-elected popular man-of-the-people, President Obama, appoints his choice for the court’s replacement, in keeping with his job description.

Before cold-calling Congress’ bluff to consider Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, maybe the president should have prepped our currently elected officials by reminding them of another successful, well-rounded Garland — Judy, as Kansas’ Dorothy Gale. She made it possible for those lacking them, to secure the courage, heart, and brains to become fully human and free to act like it.

This new executive wrinkle, however, like the odd appeal of the intended flop, “Springtime for Hitler,” instead fortifies the Republicans, and the combination of objectionable front-runners and the qualified Supreme Court appointment are twin nightmares they claim are keeping them from working.

Both Trump’s and “The Producers’” story lines are sinister and hideous, and inexplicably, both are successful as entertainment. For better or worse, we’ve chosen to watch, and we have to either sit and endure, or walk out and hope someone closes down the show.

Whether they intended it or not, the Republicans have produced and staged one of the most preventable, therefore tragic, flops of all time. The cost of this one may be our dignity and self-respect as Americans on the world stage.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Ellen Murphy: Spring politics bring to mind an earlier farce."