House of Cards: The Crack of the Whip and Dropping the Axe

by Christopher Barr

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way……”

       -  Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“I have often found that bleeding hearts have an ironic fear of their own blood.”

       -  Frank Underwood 

House of Cards is a Netflix Original Series of 13 episodes per season about ruthless politics in America.  This ruthlessness is conveyed brilliantly through the thoughts and actions of Frank Underwood, played masterfully by the always stellar Kevin Spacey.  Alongside Frank is his beautiful wife Claire, played by the riveting Robin Wright, together they climb over the skulls of the casualties that they have either stomped out, black-mailed or killed to get to the top.  They are very aware that everything is just business, even adultery.  I think the heart of the show isn’t politics, it’s the toll ambition and power has over the human being.

 

I will refrain from revealing any major plot points in the 2 seasons that are available on Netflix but I do recommend watching the entire 26 episodes before reading any further.  The great atmospheric filmmaker David Fincher set the tone of the show by directing the first couple of episodes, creating a mood and ambience that holds throughout all installments.

Frank starts out at the beginning of this Shakespearian-type tale of deceit and murder as a Congressman that is House Majority Whip on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.  His job is to be the bull that ‘whips’ the party into shape when various bills or amendments need passing or crushing.  Numerous Congressmen on the Hill have their constituencies to think about first, as they should, before they agree to offer their name ‘yay or nay’ to a vote.  While in the legislature Frank must ensure party discipline and to maintain some order in all the political chaos, while often aggressively painting the bigger picture to these men and women of the government.

"It is not necessary for the politician to be the slave of the public's group prejudices, if he can learn how to mold the mind of the voters in conformity with his own ideas of public welfare and public service." 

- Edward Bernays, Propaganda

One of the most impactful aspects of the show isn’t the politics but rather the environment that human beings themselves occupy and what they do to aggressively maintain it.  The relationships in this show range from hollow to vindictive, from off-putting to murderous.  To live this life as a politician one has to give up the very humanity that they claim to be fighting for.  To achieve any great level of success in politics one, it appears, must sell their soul to the devil to get what they want.

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”

 - Machiavelli

Machiavelli said that politics has no relation to morals.  Frank demonstrates this all too well during his climb to the vice presidency where he must stabilize his new-found power in order to build an enduring political structure.  That means that violence may be necessary for the successful stabilization of power.  Frank not only has to win but has to have control of all his chess pieces in order to maintain this power.

Sometimes Frank has to create the illusion of power and the understanding by those around him, that he is capable of horrendous things if pushed into a corner.  Vlad the Impaler ordered a forest of impaled bodies to ward off the much bigger Turkish army back in the 15^th century.  Fear is a powerful weapon in warfare; politics is war without the guns just as war is politics without the suits.

House of Cards is quite Shakespearian in nature with a focus on two specific plays, Macbeth and Richard III.  The second season is over and who knows how many more seasons there will be but you can count on it not ending too well for Frank Underwood, much in the same fate as Macbeth and Richard III underwent during the denouements of their respective stories.  Even Frank’s wife Claire resembles Lady Macbeth to some extent.  She is often present and encouraging when Frank has to drop the axe on someone.  She in some cases pushes him to do so echoing Lady Macbeth.

The real tragedies of this show are the good people, they pretty much always lose.  It’s not good to be good in House of Cards because good in politics is weakness and weakness is death.  Oddly enough while watching you find yourself rooting for the bad people and hoping the good people don’t get their due justice.  Frank manipulates many people throughout this show and the one he manipulates the most during his many soliloquies… is us.

House of Cards is a very clever show and is quite grounded in realism.  The show has been praised for its authenticity as it sinks deep into the web of American politics and journalism.  A young journalist named Zoe Barnes gets caught up in that web in order to get what everyone else in that town is out to get… power.

The problem with the show is it promotes Frank and Claire Underwood as all-knowing strategic thinkers and everyone else are somewhat simplistic and asking to be deceived.  There are very little consequences as they slither their way to the top of the Hill.  In reality very little in Washington gets done because people on both sides operate strategically rather than like Frank expediting things quickly because he’s surrounded by idiots.  I suppose that does the show a service in the form of a moving plot.  Actual politics might bore an audience to tears and possibly suicide.

House of Cards is fun and it is addictive and that’s what people really like about the show.  The show isn’t 101 in politics no more than David Fincher’s masterpiece Se7en is 101 in police investigation, but by god was it not entertaining and forcibly grounding?  Watching Frank slick his way around the government is engaging because we want to see if he’ll ever get caught for all the horrible things that he’s done, or maybe some of us wishes he never gets caught.  Hopefully the show doesn’t go as long as Dexter because that got pretty tiring watching him constantly slip through the fingers of the cops around him week after agonizing week.

“Choosing money over power is a mistake almost everyone makes.  Money is the big mansion in Saratoga that starts falling apart after ten years.  Power is that old stone building that stands for centuries.  I cannot respect someone who does not see the difference.”  

- Frank Underwood