Neon Genesis America: A New Vision For The Washington Political Commentariat
Recently, the HBO series Game Of Thrones wrapped up its sixth season, and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The series, based on the Song Of Ice And Fire novels by George Ridge Racer Martin, follows a group of wealthy aristocrats as they fuck, eat, fuck again, eat again, murder, eat again, get murdered, fuck again, pour gold on peasants, eat while fucking, promote autocratic notions of government, eat again, look at dragons, fuck peasants, fuck their blood relatives, eat while murdering, eat peasants, do blacksmithing, fuck while murdering, pour gold on their own dicks, look at uncomfortable chairs, eat dragons, murder their blood relatives, do blacksmithing on peasants, fuck uncomfortable chairs, stand on terraces, eat their blood relatives, pour gold on peasants’ dicks, and fuck dragons, has become a smash success over its run, becoming both the most legally watched and the most pirated show on HBO, and it has no greater fanbase than American political journalists.
Since the 2016 presidential primary began, we have been deluged by article after article after article after article about how this show about cum-laden monarchs is a perfect allegory for our political climate, and how Bernie, Trump, and Hillary are analogous to Game Of Thrones mainstays like Maester Baetor, Al Snow, and Daenerys Trejo.
Now that the show is off the air, our pundit class is adrift. Where will they go for their easy comparisons now? What show can be instantly mined for references and grist for the thinkpiece mill?
Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno’s groundbreaking anime about depressed gay teenagers trying to murder Christianity and their parents, is my pick for the new political analogy of our time. It even courted political controversy in its day, with a major storyline being changed due to similarities to the Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. This comparison may seem unbelievable, I admit, but it’s more accurate than you’d think. To wit, I’ve put together the Washington analogues of our favorite Tokyo-3 inhabitants.
Shinji Ikari: The American Electorate
Much like Shinji, the American electorate is in crisis. In both the Republican and Democratic parties there is a deep discord, a schism of ideals. For the Republicans, it’s between the bowtied bathroom warriors that formed the base of the party since the Reagan Revolution and the newly awakened “alt-right”, a group of Nazis, crypto-Nazis, and simple non-Aryan neofascists who found their voice in the Gamergate controversy of 2014, where Breitbart hacks like Firefly’s Adam Baldwin and Bret Easton Ellis character made flesh Milo Yandereopolous were able to harness Gamergate’s easily diverted attention span and considerable ability to harass women and minorities to serve Breitbart Media’s own agenda of harassing women and minorities, though Breitbart preferred more indirect methods such as doctored sting videos starring the World Wrestling Federation’s Godfather character if he were portrayed by Colin Delaney and long-winded rhetoric about the road to serfdom to Gamergate’s more direct strategies of death threats, rape threats, and incomprehensible conspiracy charts. In just two years, this has split the Republicans in half, pitting fine upstanding race scientists like Charles Murray and noble conspiracists like Glenn Beck against uncouth race science amateurs like David Duke and unconscionable conspiracists like Davis Aurini.
On the Left, the corresponding schism has not been as widely felt, but it has been felt. Bernie Sanders, little-known senator from Vermont, rode a wave of grassroots support to a very close loss against one of the most well-known Democratic politicians of the past two decades, Hillary Clinton. This primary shed light on many divisions between the party establishment and Bernie’s youthful base, on issues as diverse as whether the Iraq war was good, whether people should be able to pursue a college education without being destroyed by student debt, and whether the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act initiative was a landmark success or just one small step towards a genuine public option. Sanders, by his own admission, entered the race mainly as a symbolic act meant to provide a genuinely socialist voice in a party many feel has shifted away from economic justice, and he has been effective. Clinton recently announced support for a public option, despite declaring it a pipe dream early in the race. However, the conflict still affects party discourse, as proven by the recent Democratic Party platform committee meetings, where propositions by Sanders appointees such as Cornel West on issues as diverse on support for Palestine, a $15 minimum wage, and marijuana legalization were subject to intense debate and polarized votes, with many being struck down. Even when the Clintonite wing of the party has claimed victory in the primary, the ideological battle is not won.
Beechspoy is correct here, the party platform does not hold any weight in terms of how Democratic politicians operate. It does not set their agenda, or even the Presidential nominee’s agenda. It’s an entirely symbolic act. So why is it such a contested object of debate? Because of that symbolism. Sanders’ focus on changing the party platform isn’t meant for this year’s slate of candidates, but the candidates that are to come, the young people who made up his constituency and his volunteer base and have shown a passion for more economically left-wing policies.
Much like these two parties, Shinji is uncertain, about his identity, about his role in the world, and indeed about the very importance of his life. Through the course of the series he sinks further into despair, before accepting that he is the only one who can give meaning to his own life, and that he must go on. Will America make that kind of recovery this November, or will we end up on a blood-tinged shore, alone and appalled by ourselves? Only time will tell.
Rei Ayanami: Hillary Clinton
Much like Rei, Hillary is undeniably competent, one of the best Eva pilots/political candidates available, but her loyalty to the Democratic party’s corporate donor base(NERV) has proven to be as much an asset as a detriment. Rei’s relationship with Shinji was strained throughout the show’s 26-episode run, and one of the most prominent reasons for that strain was their disagreement concerning Shinji’s father Gendo Ikari(Bill Clinton), with Shinji feeling increasingly uncomfortable with his actions and motivations, and Rei only strengthening her loyalty. In much the same way, Hillary’s relationship with Goldman Sachs(SEELE) was heavily criticized by Sanders and his supporters, who claimed such a close relationship was not conducive to a Democratic Party genuinely focused on economic justice.
Asuka Langley Soryu: Donald Trump
They’re angry, they have orange hair, job done! See, this doesn’t all have to be in-depth analysis, you can have a little fun, like when Peter Dinklage does a silly little dance or whatever he does on that show.
Gendo Ikari: Bill Clinton
For many younger people, Bill Clinton occupies the same mental space as Gendo Ikari does to Shinji. If your adolescence took place in the Bush years, Clinton was the past you heard people talking about, the jovial, rotund, burger eating caricature you saw on old sketch comedy compilations or in political cartoon anthologies. He was never really an active political presence during Bush’s time in office, just an idealized fantasy of “a better president than Bush”. But when he re-entered the political arena during Hillary’s campaigns in 2008 and 2016, a re-evaluation of his time in office followed with him. The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, signed by Bill Clinton during his first term, was the most visible aspect of this. Hailed at the time as a necessary step in dealing with criminal activity, the bill has been reconsidered in recent years in a less positive light, with Hillary’s public comments in support of the bill, where she mentioned young black “super-predators” with no sense of right or wrong, coming in for just as much criticism if not more. In a time where the often fraught relationship between black Americans and the police is at the forefront of public discourse, a bill that has been cited as an accelerating force in the rise of mass incarceration is at best a misstep by the Clintons and at worst a stain on their legacy. In this analogy, the mass imprisonment of black people through mandatory minimums on nonviolent drug charges is like running a shadow organization bent on controlling the world through The Spear Of Longinus and a whole bunch of other stuff that only barely makes sense.
Kaworu: John Kasich
Throughout the course of NGE, Shinji sought companionship above all else. He pursued a closer relationship with his father, friendship at school, and more intimate ties with his comrades at NERV, but these all fell through. Only Kaworu gave him unconditional affection. In much the same way, John Kasich’s grifter charm and come-from behind second place victory in New York made him a light in the hell tunnel that was the Republican primary. Donald Trump was the villain in every Adam Sandler movie, Marco Rubio was C3PO but straight and boring, Jeb Bush was almost as dumb as his brother but didn’t have the good old boy swagger, and Ted Cruz wanted to make Leviticus the 28th amendment, but John Kasich? Ol’ Cuyahoga Johnny was just an incomprehensible old dad, who had oodles of weird stories to dish out about riding around the country on a motorcycle, meeting Ken Kesey, and reading William Blake all night. He seemed like the Jon Huntsman of 2016: the Republican you wouldn’t vote for, but could respect. But just like Kaworu failed to find Adam and kickstart Human Instrumentality, John Kasich failed to win the presidency, finally dropping out after the Indiana caucus.
Human Instrumentality: Democratic Socialism
Arise ye workers from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We’ll change henceforth the old tradition
And spurn the dust to win the prize.So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we’ll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They’ll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We’ll shoot the generals on our own side.So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E’er the thieves will out with their booty
And give to all a happier lot.
Each at the forge must do their duty
And we’ll strike while the iron is hot.So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
There are many more comparisons to be made between Evangelion and our political situation. For one, who is Bernie? Is he the penguin?
But those comparisons are for another writer, and another thinkpiece. Members of the political journalism mainstream, unite! You have nothing to lose but your tedious metaphors!
