An interesting parallel
Earlier I mentioned some stuff about wrestling, and I had another idea. In the late nineties there were three major promotions: the WWF (now WWE), WCW, and ECW. Each one had their strong and weak points and a target audience. The fall of WCW can be looked at in a similar way, however, to the current state of the Republican party:
In the nineties as WCW was building momentum, it did it with money and a groundswell of support from the fans (voters) — they hired away a lot of top talent from the WWF; Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair (who moved around a lot back then), Randy Savage, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash. The WCW had the money and the big donor (Ted Turner). They stuck to the early nineties, larger than life personas a lot longer than the WWF — the WWF’s champions were the Everyman.
Stone Cold Steve Austin versus his asshole billionaire boss.
The People’s Chamoion the Rock (although, sometimes a villain).
Mick Foley and his personas.
But they also had the special interest groups — the Nation of Domination, a riff on the Nation of Islam. You can find a lot of material for making the WWF into the Democrat party, but the main is the Big Evil Rich Boss and the Common Man Hero.
The WCW mimicked that a little with Eric Bischoff being the corrupt boss, but their stories were mostly big names against big names and standard fare. The ECW was out there making up its own rules and building its own stars — it was the Libertarian party, and the WCW hired away their talent at every chance as well, similar to the way the GOP steals libertarian ideas in order to get votes.
WCW’s biggest downfall was the power it gave the establishment guys — Hogan,the rest. These were big name draws and they got big name control over their creative direction. This was to the detriment of the on-screen story because the ego of a wrestler was allowed to influence the stories, and that made for boring, repetitive, and in some cases absolutely stupid decisions.
They backed the Establishment, and they lost the fans (voters). The WWF then absorbed them and I can see a similar future for the GOP. It will be sucked into the black hole that is the Democrat Party. (Note that ECW was also bought up by the WWF/E.)
Oh, and for more fun in this analogy, the WWF had to change their name to WWE over a dispute with environmentalists. That’s just perfect for this — beholden to a special interest group even their NAME was a trigger.
What arose to compete with the WWE? The NWA, under the name NWA TNA. They say that stands for Total Nonstop Action but we all know the angle they were going for. While TNA isn’t really a viable competitor to the WWE, the brash and bold and in your face promise of their name is similar to the alternative right. Except…
UFC is really the competition for the WWE now. And the only story lines there are real human stories. There is no bullshit, no fakery, no shows. Punches aren’t pulled, the moves aren’t pretend. That realism?
That’s the alternative right, and that’s what we need.