Lately
I’ve been catching up on “Parks & Recreation”, and I’m up to Season 4 on
Netflix. I’d like to be able to claim
that Ron Swanson’s politics – Libertarian – attracted me to the show, but I
only learned that later after watching a few seasons. What got me into the show was a Facebook post
on Andy & April interactions. I was
pleasantly surprised to learn of Ron Swanson’s ideology, which matches mine.
“Parks
& Recreation” is a NBC sitcom on its 7th and final season. It features a fictional “parks &
recreation” department in Pawnee, Indiana, with a cast of dysfunctional people.
Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). The #2 of the department, and because of
Ron’s reluctance to do anything, its de facto head. She means well but can never seem to get much
done – much to Ron’s satisfaction.
Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman). Ostensibly the head of the department, but as
a Libertarian, Ron believes government – including his own agency – should do
as little as possible. So he lets Leslie
do all the work, confident that her idealistic incompetence will never amount
to much.
Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari). An Indian? Or is he Pakistani? Anyhow, he deliberately changed his name to a
WASPY one so no one would judge him by his ethnic name. He always has some idiotic scheme
brewing. He’s not as brilliant as he
thinks he is – he suffers from a surplus of arrogance and a deficit of
substance. Because his ambition and
schemes compromise his effectiveness – meaning nothing will get done, so no
harm done – Ron values him immensely.
Jerry Gergich (Jim O’Heir) & Donna Meagle (Retta). Jerry winds up as the butt of jokes – the
Milton of the show – while Donna mainly brags about her Mercedes SUV.
Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt). Originally Ann’s unemployed – except for his
band, Mouse Rat, which changes its name continuously – and generally clueless
but likeable boyfriend. Now he’s April’s
clueless but likeable boyfriend. I’ve
yet to ascertain any actual musical talent or artistic ability on his part, but
he never lets that stop him.
April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza). Perpetually rolling her eyes and even more
cynical than Ron. Kind of a goth chick
in attitude if not dress. I’m not really
crazy about her, except that she is attractive.
Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones). She started out as Andy’s GF, but remains an
ER technician (nurse). Generally smart,
pretty, and sympathetic. She’s Leslie’s
best friend and acts a source of good advice which is never taken.
Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe). Right out of “Office Space”, Indianapolis
sent an efficiency expert to Pawnee to see how the state of Indiana could save
money. Traeger is that man. However, he’s generally too wrapped up in his
own New Age BS to be effective, so like everyone else, does his job best by
doing it poorly.
Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott). Chris’ #2 guy, the numbers guy who knows how
a spreadsheet works and can actually grasp the details his boss can’t
fathom. It turns out that when he was
18, he got elected mayor of a small town but totally botched it up, a shame he
still can’t live down. He winds up as
Leslie’s love interest.
I
can’t tell if the writers are Libertarian or not. On one level, Ron is portrayed as a
caricature of a Libertarian. He believes
government should do as little as possible, so he and his department should do
as little as possible. How does he
justify his own paycheck? Probably he
feels that in his absence, his replacement would be a go-getting busybody who
would do more harm than good in a quest to do whatever government feels
compelled to do (e.g. Leslie running the department herself). Liberals seem to feel that conservatives look
down on them as at best naïve idiots and at worst depraved morons, so they pass
the buck on to libertarians by looking down on THEM as at best naïve idiots and
at worst depraved morons.
Jane
Fonda was famous for claiming that if we all truly understood communism, we’d
be communists. Did she mean we’d all
prefer a stateless society wherein goods and services are distributed from each
according to his ability, to each according to his need, somewhat like
anarchy? Or as a totalitarian
dictatorship like North Korea? I think
if you really put it to everyone in those terms, they would still say “no
thanks” to either flavor. Except maybe
Bernie Sanders fans.
With
regard to libertarianism, I honestly believe the majority of people would
embrace the ideology if fully aware of its nature. However, Libertarians aren’t stupid. We know the actual LPA has almost no
power. We’ve never elected a
President. No one in Congress is
Libertarian, aside from Republicans like Rand Paul and Justin Amash, who are essentially
Libertarians pretending to be Republican.
I’m not aware if any Libertarians have won any governorships or state
legislature positions. If Hillary and Trump
win their respective parties’ nominations, two candidates with a deficit of
true supporters and mostly “I don’t want the OTHER side to win” voters, we’ll
have a general election this November in which both major parties have chosen
extremely unpopular candidates counting that voters consider them marginally
LESS repulsive than the other side’s.
Maybe it won’t be enough to put Gary Johnson (or MacAfee or Austin
Peterson) in the White House, but it could be enough to give them sufficient
votes that the general public will finally be aware of the Libertarian Party’s
existence. Rand Paul 2020!
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