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Hey folks, Barb here. Here's a recording of my latest cafe note, The Couch Gag. As always, please write to us with your thoughts and questions at lettersatcafe.com. Dear listener, one of my favorite parts of one of my favorite television shows is The Couch Gag.
Each episode of The Simpsons, the animated series on Fox, opens with a zany ride through the fictional town of Springfield, showing each of the five main characters racing home to plop down in front of the TV set on the family couch. But in each episode, the final frame is different. One time, the couch appeared to be on the moon with the characters in space suits. Another time, the family members were depicted as Mount Rushmore. Silly fun.
But the latest couch gag in American culture is making me wince a little. A false claim was posted on social media last month that GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance had confessed in his memoir to having had sex with a couch. Now that claim is completely baseless. I've read Hillbilly Elegy and do not recall anything about a couch.
Even the joke's originator has admitted that the claim is not true. And yet, the reference has gone viral. Despite complaining about the disinformation peddled by former President Donald Trump, many Democrats have been invoking the couch gag. At a recent rally, Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' running mate, challenged Vance to a debate, adding, if he's willing to get off the couch and show up.
The line drew uproarious laughs. Other party leaders have also joined in on the fun. The Harris HQ account on X posted that Vance, quote, does not couch his hatred of women, end quote. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and some Democratic members of Congress have made similar cheap jokes about Vance and couches. I get it that the couch gag is supposed to be used for a laugh,
And who among us couldn't use a little levity in this time when politics can be so ugly? But the problem with engaging in false claims to criticize opponents is twofold. First, some people will believe the lies, casting Vance in a false light. Second, and more importantly, others will go along with the con, knowing it is false, but pretending to buy in anyway.
to signal their membership in their political tribe. Trafficking in the couch gag deepens the partisan lines between us and them. Just as far-right Republicans seek to stoke division when they refer to their opponents as members of the Democrat Party or the Deep State, Democrats are playing the same game with the couch gag. No one wins when we choose tribe over truth.
Some will argue that the jokes are harmless fun and that the best response to strongman leaders is to belittle them. Perhaps.
But purposely repeating false claims about an opponent also normalizes lying and degrades political discourse, leading to a never-ending spiral where voters no longer know what's true and what's false. When lies become commonplace, public officials can dismiss any facts that cast them in a bad light as fake news.
In Russia, where leaders bombard the public with inconsistent claims of questionable veracity, some people have become cynical and disengaged from politics just where an authoritarian wants them. When people check out of politics, democracy suffers.
In my view, the more appropriate response of a leader presented with a false claim is to change the conversation, a lesson that has also been on display at recent Harris-Walls rallies. Supporters have begun chanting, lock him up, in an homage of sorts to one of the rituals common at Trump rallies. The refrain originated as a swipe at Trump's 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Back then, Clinton was investigated but never charged for mishandling classified information while using a private email server to conduct official business as Secretary of State.
Trump, of course, has not only been charged, but convicted of 34 crimes for falsifying business records to conceal a conspiracy to interfere in that same election. And he awaits trial in two other criminal cases. A fourth, charging Trump with unlawfully retaining government documents, has been dismissed but is on appeal. To her credit, Harris has not encouraged these chants.
Instead, she shut them down, in stark contrast to Trump, who reveled in them. Harris reminds her supporters to let the courts handle that, and instead states that our job is to beat him in November. Harris is reminding rallygoers that we are a country that values due process. By telling the crowd that the courts are the place to resolve legal disputes, she reinforces the rule of law.
Criminal cases are decided by juries, not lynch mobs. And so as much as everyone loves a good couch gag, let's leave them to the cartoons and demand the kind of adult leadership that unites Americans and strengthens our institutions. Stay informed. Barb.
