Michael Kelly, who plays Doug Stamper in “House of Cards”
Yesterday, countless Netflixers emerged from their homes after spending the weekend binge-watching the newest season of “House of Cards”, and now many are waiting for the next season to come out. Both on screen and in the real world, presidential primaries have been raging. The newly-released fourth season picks up during a bitter Democratic primary battle between Kevin Spacey’s iconic Frank Underwood and an “outsider” candidate named Heather Dunbar with immense wealth who has never held public office. Sound like anything that’s going on right now? At the center of this is Underwood’s chief of staff, Doug Stamper, played by actor Michael Kelly. I recently came across an article where CNN interviewed Stamper to get his thoughts on the most recent season, and what his thoughts are on the current presidential primary.
Of course, Kelly and I don’t agree on everything politically; his views are much more on the left side of the spectrum, and he’s a vocal Clinton supporter. Yet he makes a point that the political drama from House of Cards is almost being eclipsed by the current primary. On both sides of the political spectrum, outsider candidates have been making steady gains that are leaving established politicians scratching their heads. Kelly has attributed much of the drama around this race to the rise of Donald Trump.
If House of Cards put in a character like Trump, Kelly insists that critics would accuse the show of “jumping the shark”. While Trump has no shortage of foes and critics, he’s been making remarkable gains and by now has a decent shot of winning the Presidency. Both Kelly and Kevin Spacey, who plays main character Frank Underwood, have stated that Underwood could “easily” beat Trump. Yet neither of them elaborated on how this would happen, I’m sure much to the chagrin of the established GOP and plenty of Democrats.
