It’s no surprise that the media are eager to pin all things negative onto President Trump. In their collective eyes, he can do no good. The more Trump can be connected to or blamed for that which is of a dark, violent, and authoritarian nature, the better. The new movie Joker, with its exceedingly bleak and disturbing subject matter, is the ideal material.
But linking Trump to this entertainment offering is an exaggeration at best, and one does not need to be an enthusiastic MAGA cheerleader to come to this conclusion.
Joaquin Phoenix’s turn as a brutal character in the Batman universe has garnered a great deal of praise as well as censure. Arthur Fleck is severely mentally unwell and finds it difficult to exist in a world that cares so little for those like him. As a middle-aged white man living in squalor with his mother, and with no job or romantic prospects, he is either ignored or entirely invisible. It doesn’t take long for his hopeless existence to transform into rage-fueled purpose. Phoenix jolts the audience with his tense, unique, demented portrayal of the lonely character. From the start, the cinematic content is raw and unforgiving.
The story of a disgruntled white male who realizes that he is losing his grasp on societal power is enticing to the “woke” minds of 2019. In a country that is witnessing toxic levels of incivility, most especially online and in the political sphere, the movie is seen as an example.
In articles headlined “‘Joker‘ — a political parable for our times” and “‘Joker’ nails the nihilism and opportunism of populist firebrands,” anti-Trump authors draw a direct line from the president to his supporters and back again. In Jeff Yang’s take on CNN, he makes bold claims, saying of the movie: “It’s an insidious validation of the white-male resentment that helped bring President Donald Trump to power.” At the Washington Post, Max Boot declares, “We have a Joker on the big screen — and a joker in the White House” and likens the president to a “supervillain running amok.”
While it’s tempting to find life in art and vice versa, these comparisons are woefully inaccurate.
Unlike the crumbling persona of Arthur Fleck, Trump is as naturally confident a man as anyone has ever seen. Whether he’s right or wrong, he believes he’s right. His privileged upbringing and longtime domination of the business world make him more an egotistical playboy than a leader of the evil underworld. Unlike the Joker, he doesn’t try to hide behind a mask of his own creation. What you see is exactly what you get. Whether you voted for him or not, you saw it coming. The Trump administration offers no surprises.
In 2016, Trump won male support 53% to 41% over Clinton and nearly the same amount of the white vote as previous GOP candidate Mitt Romney. It is false to conclude that these voters, who ultimately took his side opposite a long-time political player with a sordid past, did so because of some gender and race-based anger at the world. Many people felt marginalized between the coasts after eight years of Democratic control.
This does not mean any of them cling to violent rebellion as a response. The desire for change isn’t incorrect in itself.
Trump critics in both the political and entertainment industry are looking for their own validation in the Joker movie. They desperately want a violent comic-book character’s story to inspire some white, loner, male fury in the real world. But Trump, for all his foibles, is no evil genius. The voters who placed him in power are frustrated voters, not unhinged maniacs.
Despite claims to the contrary, there are no overtly political overtones in the movie. The director himself has stated it isn’t political. Even the main character, when confronted with his own ability to inspire others claims, “I don’t believe in all of that. I don’t believe in anything.” Are we then to assume that somehow Trump and his supporters are displayed onscreen? It is utter nonsense.
No matter what you think of Trump, his real-world words and actions are enough material of their own. It is unwise to spare him from just criticism. Just as fruitless is the effort to find him where he simply can’t be found.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
