Terry Shaffer

The Democracy Dramaturgy: Modern American Politics in Two Acts Terry Shaffer

A genre-bending parody of the evolution of American politics. The Democracy Dramaturgy is told from the perspective of a cynical deadhead named Mo, who, via the wonders of extraterrestrial time-travel, is able to witness firsthand what his nation has been, as well as what it is becoming. When he is accidentally transported to another planet, Mo finds himself in a once-perfect world that has been overwhelmed by the disabling impact of mindless American television programs from the Seventies and their insipid fictional stars. But the fictional characters are far from the most dangerous Earth-born garbage with which the planet's inhabitants must deal, as Mo and Martin S. Cribler, former-crusading-turned-suicidal journalist soon discover. Two other "real" Earth men have preceded them to the planet and are actively waging war for the hearts and minds of the populace: Mafia thug Nino D'Rocca and singing television preacher Duncan Heathens. Sometimes hilarious, often enlightening, The Democracy Dramaturgy is the story of Mo's awakening as he recognizes himself as a fractal representation of the universe in which he resides and finally understands he never needed to change the world. He only needed to accept himself.