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on television gets drawn into real-world politics?
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Think Martin Sheen (Almost) Goes to Washington. Set in the year 2019, The 28th Amendment introduces us to an actor named Victor Glade who plays the President in a popular television series called The Oval Office, and does his job a little too well — embarrassing and threatening the Administration of the real President, Republican Burton Grove. When a wealthy fan of The Oval Office launches a campaign to draft Glade into the 2020 presidential race, Glade insists he won’t run, and instead discharges his civic duty by endorsing the 28th Amendment — a proposal to limit the total amount of money that can be spent on Federal general elections. The already-paranoid Grove Administration, vehemently opposed to the 28th Amendment, soon concludes that The Oval Office is no longer just a television show but also an unregistered political party, and tries to shut it down. The result is a startling, twisting tale of espionage, domestic terrorism and presidential politics that pits the Grove Administration’s theocratic Chief-of-Staff, Morely James, against the enormously popular Victor Glade and his coincidence-prone, card-playing lawyer Jeremy Lerner. |
By turns intelligent, fascinating, and outrageously funny, Rechtman’s narrative works on several levels. It explores the potential for conflict between politics and entertainment in a media-defined age, and is also a chilling parable of the US government’s relentless stoking and exploitation of our nation’s post-9/11 Osamaphobia. At the same time, in the realm of non-fiction, the 28th Amendment is an actual proposed amendment to the US Constitution that readers can support by pledging their vote at www.amendment-28.com (click the right button for the “real” amendment.)
