Survivor! Tariffs! Trump! And Your Mail (Sort of)

It's That Time of the Week Again...

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on when things went off the rails in this country. It may just be getting back from the tropics but I think I may have nailed the cause of all our ails: Survivor.

Yes, that continuously ongoing reality game show competition, that one.

You see, BEFORE Survivor, prime time competitions like this were rare, with most shows being comedies or dramas. During the summer of 2000, CBS realized they had a huge hit on their hands as people sat glued to their televisions to watch 16 people dumped on an island with only rice and their wits. Networks realized how cheap they were to make and how popular they were and a gold rush ensued. Soon after other shows developed; Big Brother, Top Chef, American Idol, The Bachelor and the list goes on and on. Cottage industries popped up with knock-offs; we had a dating show in which Flavor Flav WAS THE PRIZE for crying out loud.

Some argue it was when “The Real World” debuted on MTV. Well, it DID kill MTV but was still a little niche. The only long term effects is that it gave us Sean Duffy and Rachel Campos as “intellectuals.” Still, the progression of TRW over the last 30 years mirrors very closely the demise of our political sphere as well, but wasn’t a competion as much as it was vainglorious attractive twentysomethings kvetching over whatever. It’s still no Survivor.

Now you may be saying, “so what, how did Survivor change America.” Yup, I’m getting to that.

What’s important to remember is that before Survivor, contests were about BEING THE BEST at something. Achievement. Accomplishment. Survivor changed that dynamic in two ways. First, it no longer mattered if you were the best, what mattered is that you weren’t the WORST, who would be then kicked off weekly. Second, it changed the focus from actual objective competition, and fixed the camera on the social dynamics and relationships. No longer was competition about being better, stronger, faster, or the best you could be. No, competition was now about social status, being in the “in” group and punishing those out of it. We went from making smart choices about leadership and transformed it into a tribalism that persists to this day. Play the game a dozen different times with the exact same people and you’ll get a dozen wildly different results. It’s mostly a lottery based on the whims of its participants disguised as a game.

People could make stars of themselves playing up in show drama just as the pageclick world was just getting started. The Kardashians have lived with this as their mantra for almost two decades since then¹. That first year of Survivor, crumudgeonly former Navy man Rudy Boesch became a beloved icon. Colleen Haskell and Jenna Lewis in their bikinis were on the tabloid magazine covers every week. Richard Hatch won the million dollars and parlayed that into a speaking career.² Subsequent stars on the show have built up other careers in the limelight, most notably Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who was a host of The View for awhile. And its now that way with lots of reality shows; the networks have whoever was booted off the show the night before on the morning and late shows, they make the rounds in various media outlets, and those with the right amount of charisma use it to make pseudo-stars of themselves, despite lacking any recognizable skill or ability other than that of being famous for….something.

Nobody understands that perspective better than Donald Trump himself, who had his own reality game show, which remarkably enough was created by Mark Burnett, the same person responsible for Survivor. Winning this wasn’t about being better or getting things the best they could be; it was about gladhandling the Don to the biggest extent possible and just not being kicked off on any given week. Omarosa, a first season LOSER went on to make a name for herself and actually even served in the White House for awhile in Trump’s first term. Does it matter who wins or who leads on that show? Not in the least, just as it doesn’t on ANY of these shows. All that matters is not getting on the Don’s bad side.

And that is where we went off the rails. What you were able to achieve or accomplish no longer mattered, appealing to the masses and having rizz in front of the cameras did. Just look at first term Senator (and only there 4 years) Barack Obama. In that atmosphere, Hillary Clinton never had a chance in 2016, nor Biden or Harris in 2024. Elections have always had a little bit of Survivor in them, but the perception that people build and represent something was always there and an important feature of them. Today, that’s no longer the case, you can be an utter empty vessel with no moral core at all, as long as you appeal to enough people and go after those outside your tribe.

All you need to have is some charm and convince enough people you’re not the worst.

I’ll take a prime time comedy over that any day.

PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week

The Good

Congrats to the University of Florida, for winning the Men’s NCAA Championship this week.

And let’s not forget the Women— Congrats to Paige Bueckers and the University of Connecticut on winning their NCAA Title as well.

To all the people of our 50th State, Hawaii- Thank you! One of the best vacations ever. As if to cap it off, Hawaii’s last monarch, Queen Lilliuokilani received some acclaim this week; an accomplished musician, a song she wrote “Aloha Oe” was included into the National Recording Registry this week.

The Bad

I’m not a fan of watching golf on TV, which is why The Masters this weekend is not that big of a deal to me. Green jackets, whoop whoop.

I’ve defended Bill Maher from a lot of criticism, much of which is unwarranted (most criticisms I see are liberals all upset that Bill isn’t as liberal as they are). And I get that being invited to the White House is not something many will decline, and we do only have one President and our current Buffoon in Chief is it. But really Bill? The guy sued you for millions over a joke? Have you no dignity? Couldn’t you have just said “Fuck off Don?”

The Ugly

Serial Ugly List Feeb Donald Trump makes it again this week for his enacting and then backtracking tariffs after Wall Street had a fit. The Art of the Kneel by the Don.

And as if one entry wasn’t enough, this week Trump gets a two-fer. The second is for signing an executive order directing the DOJ to consider charges against two previous Trump Administration officials, Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs. Their crime? Speaking out against Trump actions, specifically saying the 2020 election wasn’t rigged. Trump threw out the idea that this amounted to treason. Let that sink in.

Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!

PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner

As long as we are on the topic of television shows, I’m not really big into “ripped from the headlines” dramas. A lot of times they seem cheesy and play to our ever growing sensationalized culture. Occasionally though, they get the feel right.

And so I watched the first eight episodes of Daredevil, the Marvel hero show currently streaming on Disney+. Generally, Daredevil is typical mindless superhero fare, and previous seasons were well done but were escapist fodder—easily forgotten soon after. But this season really exemplifies major current issues and events that are going on today.

To give a brief synopsis, “The Kingpin” a villainous gangster thug who epitomizes mob ethics, runs for and becomes mayor of New York. Once in power, he embraces the enhanced powers of the office for corruption and uses it to retaliate against past enemies. He creates a police task force answerable only to him assigned to identify and arrest vigilantes, and beat confessions out of anyone else. It’s a great story and Vincent D’Onofrio is par excellence as Kingpin, as if commenting directly on WWDT do (What would Donald Trump do?). One scene in particular, a confrontation in the second episode between Daredevil, Attorney Matt Mudock and Kingpin Wilson Fiske, evokes the great diner scene in Heat between DeNiro and Pacino. Definitely worth your time to watch.

PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail

When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)

Oy, was this week a doozy. I come back from vacation and get inundated with people saying I’m not serious enough, that I blame Democrats too much (really?) and that I am just some cynical stoolie. Ugh, I wish I were back on that beach in Maui sucking down another mai tai.

This week I had to invoke the “Tom Nichols Rule” on more than one occassion. I’m a big proponent of it. The rule is basically, if there is a comment that demonstrates that you will never have a good conversation with this person ever, block them.

Some of you (most my subscribers and regulars aren’t this way, but some of the occasional “drop in and see what he’s saying” are…I tend to just mute those) make this rule very easy to use, so a word of advice; if you feel the need to respond to everything because you just happen to think you’re smarter than everyone else who should benefit from your omniscient insight, and all you’re doing is pissing people off, just….don’t.

The post that ticked everyone off was “Reflecting on Our Current State of Politics.” I thought these were pretty objective observations ripping on both the left and the right; the fact that I managed to piss off both the left and the right seemed to confirm it. In fact, the post received about a 5:1 positive to negative ratio, and of the negative, it was 2:1 saying I was too liberal.

But the way each side responses were just…different. From the right, I got a series of one sentence “grunt” emails praising the love of “liberal tears” being shed. They all had the requisite “broname/string of digits” handle with under 10 subscribers, which made it very easy to click the “Block” button on them. But the liberal responses, dear lord. Daggumit, they all have PhDs in political philospophy (not really, but they talk like they think they do) and want you to know it! One guy on the comment board posted a 20 paragraph manifesto longer than the initial post itself. My eyes glazed over as if he hadn’t read a single word I said in the original post at all, specifically this part:

20 fucking paragraphs, most saying how wrong and offbase I was, in response? Really? WTF? I responded “TL;DR” (too long, didn’t read).

He responded AGAIN about how this was supposed to be a DIALOGUE (it’s not, people choose to join a dialogue—I didn’t want to talk with this twat) and how I had been so RUDE to dismiss him so out of hand (again, 20 fucking paragraphs?) He then chastised me saying he “didn’t write this whole thing for fun now.”³ Sigh. Where to begin.

No, it wasn’t a dialogue, it was a post, and I mean, feel free to comment good or bad about it, but don’t assume I’m going to chat up a debate with everyone who comes here looking to pick a verbal sparring match. This isn’t fucking Twitter (in fact, that’s a big reason I got off it in the first place). It’s Substack, a place for longform writing that may or may not strike a chord, but allows people to express opinions in greater than arbitrary character limits. Comments are for feedback. If you want to write a 20 paragraph retort to something, start your own Substack page and knock yourself out. If all you do is rip on people on “the other side” or pontificate just to hear yourself speak, I probably won’t look for it.

Now, I KNOW you’d all love to see the original post. In fact, I wanted to repost it here IN ITS ENTIRETY to show what not to do if you want someone who has a Substack page to respond. Unfortunately, because I blocked “manifesto guy” I can no longer see it. And because I can’t remember who of the many I had the necessity to block this week, I can’t unblock him just for the sake of finding it.

Most of y’all who come to my page are great, and I love the community we are forming here. Most of you “get it.” I love your commentary and quite often think even those who disagree with me make some very valid, interesting points. But for the love of all that is holy, don’t write a doctoral thesis in the comment section or send me an email outlining your 97 points on why PurpleAmerica, Moderates and Centrism Sucks as if you are nailing them to the church door. For starters, I’m not THAT important, and if I can be so bold, neither are you or your dogmatic philosophies. We’re all just trying to get through life and I’m trying to 1) have some fun 2) express my thoughts, 3) find like minded people who share these ideas, and 4) create a community where we can see the good and bad with both sides. Is that so difficult to ascertain? For some nonsubscribers, apparently so.

Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at purpleamericanunity@gmail.com

PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week

I love this week because it allows me to talk about one of my favorite historical figures and the role he played in U.S. history. (The below is reproduced from a post LAST year about him, but it’s still pretty good!)

This man played one of the most important and pivotal roles in American history. There should be monuments and statutes made to him. Yet, he continues to remain a bit in obscurity. We’ll get to what he did in a moment…

No bigger change in US history occurred than what happened this week 160 years ago back on April 9th, 1865, in a tiny court house in Appamattox. VA, General Robert E. Lee formally surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant. The four year bloodbath known as the American Civil War was coming to a close. Abraham Lincoln was ecstatic; a deep depression that had followed him throughout the course of his Presidency suddenly seemed to be lifted. To help celebrate, that weekend he and his wife were to go to a play at Ford’s Theatre, and we all know how that turned out.

But getting back to Lee’s surrender, present at the surrender was Grant’s adjutant, a Lt. Col. named Ely Parker. Here he is seated on the left to Grant:

Parker was a member of the Seneca Tribe of upstate New York. He taught himself to read and write and became an engineer, eventually helping work on the Erie Canal. He worked on government projects out in Galena, IL before the war, which is where he met a young Ulysses S. Grant. When the war started, he tried to enlist but was told by the Secretary of War that as a Native American, he was not allowed. After contacting his friend Grant, Grant commissioned him as a Captain and he became the chief engineer of what would be the Battle of Vicksburg. He would later become the Secretary of Indian Affairs once Grant attained the Presidency. But on that day of surrender all those years ago, it was Parker’s job to actually write up and document the official terms of surrender, a pretty monumental and noteworthy task. If you ever see the surrender documents in Appamattox Court House, they are written in his hand.

But what I really love about this event, and about Parker particularly, is that in one seemingly anodyne statement, he captured the nation’s healing, unity and what makes this country so special, and he did it in the classiest and most dignified of ways. In Parker’s own words, upon hearing of Parker’s heritage, Lee “… extended his hand and said, ‘I am glad to see one real American here.’ I shook his hand and replied, ‘We are all Americans, sir.’” In one brief retort, he 1) acknowledged the status of the South again after surrender, once again a part of the United States; 2) acknowledged Lee’s higher rank addressing him as “sir”, a military courtesy that as now part of a rejoined army noted that Lee now outranked him; and 3) stated a singular universal truth about what makes this country great—that regardless of your background, beliefs, heritage or social status, we are all Americans. There’s not many more profound statements in American History that have been said, unless by Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln.

So as we head into the weekend, and as we enter what is likely to be a tumultuous summer politically, let me reiterate Ely Parker’s wise words and sense of graciousness— We Are All Americans. Let’s continue to treat each other as such.

PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week

What do you get when you cross a dog with a tulip?

A collie-flower.

And with that…

Like what you are seeing here at PurpleAmerica? Share and Comment. Let your friends and family know! Repost on Twitter and Threads. Forward us topics you’d like us to discuss! It’s an open community here.

Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. A reminder, Kim Kardashian became a household name based on a very x-rated “unauthorized” sex video that were somewhat popular in the early 2000s (Paris Hilton, Girls Gone Wild, Survivor alum Jenna Lewis, Screech from Saved by the Bell ALL had “unauthorized” sex videos on the market). It’s always been suspected that the video was in fact authorized.

2. What is often forgotten about that first season was that Richard won by just one vote, and one of the “jury members,” Greg Buis basically flipped a coin on who he chose, by simply asking the two finalists to pick a number. Hatch has taken that good fortune and become perceived as the I Ching in how to win at Survivor.

3. Yes he did. He did it because he wanted to hear his own voice. I get it, but not everyone wants to listen. I certainly didn’t.