No Party Given: Difference between revisions

If, for example, a movie features a [[President Evil]], identifying their party might make a political statement that the writer does not intend to make. It may simply be a lack of commitment on the writer's part—the character might espouse views from both sides. In any case, it avoids unnecessarily offending a large portion of the audience.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Escape from New York]]'', the President's political party is never mentioned or indicated. There's no mention of his political positions: he's just an uncaring self-absorbed bastard.

** There are several interviews with [[John Carpenter]] in which he says the political climate in the film was based on (what he believes to be) both parties moving away from individual liberty as their core value. This interpretation is also supported by the fact that Snake Plissken is played by [[Kurt Russell]], who is a noted Libertarian.

* In ''[[Bob Roberts]]'' the title character is frequently identified as conservative, but rarely as an actual Republican.

* The unnamed and almost unseen President in ''[[In the Line of Fire]]'' doesn't identify with a political party. Signs at his campaign rallies just say "Re-Elect The President".

* President Whitmore in ''[[Independence Day]]'' has no identified political party. We know he's a Gulf War fighter ace, and a brief reference to a failed "crime bill" is made, but otherwise all we know is that he wants to kick some alien ass.

* ''[[The Dish]]'' has the Prime Minister mention a party, but he doesn't identify which one. The real PM of the time was John Gorton of the Liberal Party.

* The president in ''[[Buckaroo Banzai]]'' can't decide whether he's hawkish or diplomatic. The only pertinent executive decision is in how to resolve the alien crisis and prevent [[World War III]], which would presumably be in any American party's interest. If only a [[Marty Stu]] could solve everything and save the world in 30 minutes!

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===

* In ''[[24]]'' Season 7, President Allison Taylor is not explicitly identified by party (at least so far). Since her predecessor is presumably Democrat, she is presumably Republican - and yet her idealism tends to be more of a liberal trait, and her predecessor appears to have mostly GOP traits.

* Jim Hacker, in ''[[Yes Minister]]'', had Conservative views as well as looking and acting very much like the stereotypical Conservative MP, but was not identified as such. His party HQ was called "Central House", an amalgam of Central Office and Transport House, the locations of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party in real life at that time. In fact, many of the plot points in ''Yes Minister'' are based on real incidents, but they occurred under both Conservative and Labour ministries.

** On one occasion, in fact, Hacker is heard musing on what the Conservative or Labour parties would do in a similar situation, implying he is neither.

** This is actually part of the point of the show — that regardless of party and ideology, the elected leaders are hamstrung by the career bureaucrats (who, for their own part, may honestly believe that they serve the people best by preventing well-intentioned politicians from gumming up the works).

{{quote|''"The Opposition aren't really the Opposition. They're just called the Opposition. But in fact they are the Opposition in exile. The Civil Service are the Opposition in residence."''|Journalist Anthony Jay, paraphrased in an early episode of ''[[Yes Minister]]''}}

* Governor Gatling of ''[[Benson]]'' only ever refers to his party as "The Party". For that matter, we're never even told [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|what state he's the governor of.]]

* Harriet Jones from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' repeatedly introduces herself as "MP for Flydale North" without ever mentioning what party she represents. Certain clues have led fans to believe she belongs to either the Labour (the reference to "the babes" in "Aliens of London") or Conservative (the Margaret Thatcher allegory in "The Christmas Invasion").

* The mayor in ''[[Spin City]]''. Some of his properties were those of a strawman Liberal, while others were that of a strawman Conservative.

* Throughout season one of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Nathan Petrelli is running for Congress. His party and political views are never discussed. The show also makes a much bigger deal out of a congressional election than is typical of real life.

** Subtle hints indicate that he is a Republican, particularly the fact that his campaign is based on "family values", which at the time was a phrase more vocally used by Republicans.

** Tracy Strauss, a political consultant and [[Blonde Republican Sex Kitten|Blonde Maybe Republican Sex Kitten]] would also fit this trope. She says that her boss, the governor of New York, has trouble with the far right but that does not rule out him being a Republican. She is likely of the same party as Nathan Petrelli as she helped him become a Senator.

** Notably, this contrasts [[Kelsey Grammer]]'s own political affiliation, and that of his most vocally (straw) political character, [[The Simpsons (animation)|Sideshow Bob]].

* ''[[The Thick of It]]'' simply has "The Party" and "The Opposition", but it isn't hard to guess who their real-life equivalents are (Labour and the Tories, respectively).

* Irish political sitcom ''Val Falvey T.D.'' never mentioned the lead's party. His logo is green, implying Fianna Fáil, but the opening titles are blue, implying Fine Gael.

* The panel show ''If I Ruled the World'' had a Blue Team consisting of Graeme Garden and a teammate versus a Red Team consisting of Jeremy Hardy and a teammate, all playing politicians, but not corresponding to the Conservative or Labour parties, and mostly sticking to satirizing the political process in general.

* The Politician's party that Carrie from ''[[Sex and the City]]'' dates for a brief period is kept intentionally vague... because, hey, that's not what The Girls are about.

* In an episode of ''[[The Monkees (TV series)|The Monkees]]'', Mike runs for mayor in order to unseat the corrupt incumbent; neither the party of Mike nor the incumbent mayor is ever given (though Mike can possibly be assumed to be running as an Independent). As a Mayoral race it could have plausibly been non-partisan if not for a slightly awkward bit of dialogue early on where Mike threatens to take his complaint with the mayor and "dump it in the opposing party's lap".

* Naturally, no party was assigned to Mayor Richard Wilkins III in any ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode; even if [[Affably Evil| he ''was'' a pretty decent fellow]] if you overlook all the stuff about building the Hellmouth and sacrificing infants to demons.

 

=== [[Theatre]] ===

=== [[Web Comics]] ===

* When ''[[Walkyverse|Shortpacked!'s]]'' Robin DeSanto gets elected to congress, this is lampshaded as a "Non-Partisan Romp!". Later, an unlabeled campaign leaflet blends caricatures of both sides with "Robin DeSanto is out of touch with core American values! Voted yes on CANCER! Voted yes on TERRORISTS!" Voted no on BABIES! Voted no on FREEDOM!"

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20080819225820/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ps238/comics/index.php?date=2007-10-03 However, Dylan's favorite color is red and Jenny's is blue].

** The other time you can actually tell their politics apart is when they light directly into each other, when Dylan will call Jenny a pinko commie and she responds by calling him a backwards neanderthal (or something of the sort).

* All three Presidents in ''[[My Fellow Americans]]'' are identified as either Democrat or Republican in the opening scenes.

* Every character in ''[[The Contender]]'' has his/her party and general political stances made very explicit.

 

=== [[Literature]] ===

* Hybridised in ''[[The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard]]'', where Ros Pritchard forms the Purple Democratic Alliance out of dissatisfaction with both Labour and the Conservatives after they start a fistfight outside her supermarket (purple = Labour red + Conservative blue, of course), pinching members from both parties in the process. [[Take That]], Lib Dems! (She persuades a Lib Dem to defect, too.)

* Despite being a legal and not a political drama, ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'' manages to avert this: Guthrie Featherstone is a Labour (implied) MP who later (explicitly) joins the SDP, Rumpole's third client in the series is a Labour backbencher, Charles Hearthstoke self-identifies as a Tory, and Liz Probert...well...let's just say that her father's name is "Red" Ron Probert, shall we? Rumpole himself doesn't clearly have a party affiliation, but, iconoclast and sympathizer with the poor that he is, it would appear that he's somewhere on the left (likely voting Labour at the beginning of the series in 1967 and voting Liberal Democrat by the end in 1992).

 

=== [[Theatre]] ===

 

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

* President Richard Nixon's Head in ''[[Futurama]]'' is not one bit less Republican than the real Richard Nixon.

* Mayor Quimby from ''[[The Simpsons]]'' is a member of the Democratic Party.

 

=== [[Real Life]] ===