Why Rick Rubin Understands Politics Better than a Top Democrat
Towards the end of Rick Rubin’s recent appearance on WTF with Marc Maron, the cryptic conversation ended up in one of the super-producer’s favorite rhetorical cul-de-sacs: professional wrestling.
“It’s the most honest form of information in our society,” Rubin said. “Pro wrestling is the most accurate representation of life.”
Rubin is a lifelong wrestling obsessive; he funded a short-lived wrestling promotion and gave the heel promo playbook to the Beastie Boys. Maron, who co-starred on three seasons of Netflix’s GLOW and has had a handful of wrestlers on his podcast, was ready to walk the line.
“Dude — right now, you’ve got heels in government. Donald Trump was the biggest heel and the best heel that ever lived,” Maron said, somewhere between bemused and horrified.
The idea that the disgraced former president — and member of the WWE Hall of Fame — is more pro wrestler than politician is not a new idea. It’s a formulation written about in scores of bemused and horrified op-eds during the 2016 campaign and throughout Trump’s term (and in a book that I co-authored with the editor of this site). But despite all the analysis of Trump’s (first?) term and its long-term effects on the country, the connection between politics and pro wrestling has still not been fully grappled with by those looking to defeat Trumpism.
Take Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat first elected to Congress in 2012 and co-chair of the House Democratic Steering & Policy Committee, who also wrote a book about Trump. On a recent episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, the 40-year-old rising star explained to the trio of #resistance grifters how the behavior of his political opponents bemuses and horrifies him.
“It’s pro wrestling, to be honest,” Swalwell said. “Many of my colleagues are better suited to work at the WWE.”
Swalwell noted several examples of foes like Ted Cruz taking aim at him in public while privately acknowledging his work, or even giving restaurant recommendations. To him, these are shocking examples of duplicity, or even a disconnect from reality.
“If you’re a pro wrestler… it doesn’t matter that you hit me over the head in a ring with the steel chair,” he explained. “It’s all fake right? You’re just doing what the fans want.”
As any fan will tell you, wrestling isn’t fake — it’s predetermined. The visceral emotion is real; the impact of the moves is real; the wrestler’s pain is real. (Chair shots — the non-wrestling fan’s go-to move, after bodyslams — can even lead to real tragedy.)
For Swalwell — and most Democrats — politicians acting like pro wrestlers is anathema, an insult to the good work they’ve come to Washington to do. And that might have been true, back in the days when kayfabe was the rule of the land. But wrestling kayfabe died in 1989 or 1996, depending on who you ask, and political kayfabe died on November 8, 2016. Swalwell accuses his opponents of “just doing what the fans want” like it’s an insult and not the basis of representative democracy. Isn’t it time Democrats tried that?
No doubt, the political core of Trumpism is rotten, but its tactics work. Pointing out duplicity or hypocrisy doesn’t. So instead of being white-meat babyfaces, shocked when a heel distracts the ref or uses a foreign object, Democrats like Swalwell need to embrace being tweeners and get in the ring, unless they want Joe Biden to be a transitional champion.
Feature image, from left to right, Paul Levesque, Rick Rubin and Stephanie McMahon from the WWE YouTube video “The Game meets with music icon Rick Rubin in Malibu: Triple H’s Road to WrestleMania”
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