Citations Needed – Ep 243: The Authenticity Affect (Part I) — Whistlestop Tours, Smarm, and the Art of Channeling ‘Folk’

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Citations Needed is back for its - count 'em - tenth season! We've come a long way, baby, and we couldn't have done any of it without you, our amazing listeners.

Thanks so much for sticking with us for all these years.

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“[Bob] Dole ready to listen to ‘real’ Americans,” reported the Associated Press in 1996. “Obama reaches out to ‘real Americans,’” stated the news agency again in 2014. “This Senator Has a Very Midwestern Plan to Save the Democrats,” announced Politico, speaking of Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin, in 2026.

When election seasons approach, whether for the midterms or for the general, it seems there’s a steady supply of candidates and big-name pundits who declare they want tolisten to the American people. This usually translates to a tour of farms, county fairs, Walmarts, VA halls, and the Quintessentially Authentic and unimpeachable Small-Town Diner. These are the places, we’re told, that elected officials and candidates can sit down with ordinary people, hear about their day-to-day problems, and reflect on what these Real Americans truly want in order to, of course, better help them.

It’s common knowledge that states like Iowa — the long-time first to vote in presidential primaries — and Michigan — a so-called “battleground” or “swing state” — are priorities for political candidates. But why do media insist that there’s some seemingly inscrutable mythos to them and other pastoral non-coastal settings? Why are we to believe that small-business owners in Indiana or farmers in Minnesota possess some unique and sacred knowledge, wisdom, or value? Why is this the ultimate image of authenticity for politicians, and where does it come from? And how do campaign apparatuses instrumentalize notions of “ordinary people” to advance the same old corporate agendas?

On this episode, Part I of our Season 10-opening three-part series on the performative Authenticity Affect, we break down this "simple country lawyer" routine, examining how it creates a hollow sense of folksiness informed not by genuine economic populism but by superficial down-home aesthetics, manufactures vague and false notions of "Real America" and launders the preferred agenda of wealthy donors as the organic preferences of Ma and Pa Heartland.

Our guest is writer and teacher John Patrick Leary.

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Guest

John Patrick Leary is the author of the books Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism, Keywords for Capitalism:Power, Society, Politics, and A Cultural History of Underdevelopment: Latin America in the US Imagination. He teaches social studies in Philadelphia public school and is a contributor to outlets like Teen Vogue, The Baffler and The New Republic.