One debater vigorously delivered one lie after another, but the other spoke with a raspy voice and a tentative manner.  (debate transcript.) So Republicans gloat and Democrats panic. It’s a crisp demonstration of the downside of politics as theater.

Vaclav Havel, a playwright who became a president, saw many and essential connections between theater and politics, which he explained in a 1997 essay. One passage that alludes to the potential downside of this connection seems especially relevant:

“Even doubters cannot deny one aspect of theatricality in politics: the dependence of politics on media. Many politicians would be helpless without coaches to teach them the techniques of performing in front of the camera. All politicians, including those who sneer at theater as superfluous, something that has no place in politics, unwittingly become actors, dramatists, directors, or entertainers. 

“The significant role that sense of theater plays in politics is two-edged. Those possessing this quality can arouse society to great deeds and nurture democratic culture, civic courage, and a sense of responsibility. Such people can also mobilize the worst instincts and passions, make masses fanatic, leading them into hell. Remember the gigantic Nazi congresses, torchlight processions and inflammatory speeches by Hitler and Goebbels, the cult of German mythology. We could hardly find a more monstrous abuse of the theatrical aspect of politics. And today — even in Europe — rulers use theatrical tools to arouse the kind of blind nationalism that leads to wars, ethnic cleansings, concentration camps and genocide….”

Relevant article: Theater and Democracy, born together, now both under attack (from 2021)