I’m sure you’ve heard this line about politics: “It’s showbiz for ugly people.”

I think that applies to all democracies, but more so to the USA than Australia. There are many reasons for this, not least the fact that the nation is home to massive and globally influential film and television industries. In such a media-saturated culture anyone with high political aspirations who doesn’t build and maintain a larger than life public persona hasn’t a snowflake’s chance in hell – let’s face it.

And it’s long been this way. Take Ronald Reagan, who was a dinkum movie star before he became one of America’s most successful presidents.

Needless to say, he was (and remains) loathed by liberals with the same intensity that local lefties detest Tony Abbott. They would often portray him as a moral simpleton who performed the role of president like he played heroic good guys in movies. But the truth was more complicated. He started out as a liberal and cut his political teeth as president of the Screen Actors Guild, among other things.

Still, his film stardom was certainly a huge political asset to him. And while he was no Marlon Brando talent-wise, he cannily applied his moderate acting skill to connecting with the electorate, justifiably becoming known as “The Great Communicator”.

And now we have President-elect Donald Trump. As well as spending decades as a high-profile businessman he was a TV celebrity in his own right – the executive producer and star of the hugely successful reality show The Apprentice.

While ideologically different to Reagan, Trump is also a superb persuader who has managed to leverage his fame to develop a powerful rapport with the American people. He’s even repeated Reagan’s memorable messaging with his promise to “Make America Great Again!”.

There’s another way that American politics has so much in common with Hollywood. The epic scale and intensity of the contest for the White House is like a movie itself! And this time, it’s looking very much like a dark, Byzantine thriller.

This year’s battles for party nominations followed by the one for the presidency have been more chockas with intrigue, shocking revelations, plot twists and turns, conspiracies real and imagined, and full-on thrills and spills than the last four elections combined!

In the interests of brevity I’ll just list a few key names, words and phrases from this ongoing political slugfest: Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Seth Rich’s murder, Donna Brazile, debate rigging, Project Veritas, the Clinton Foundation and “pay for play”, Hillary’s “home brew” server, those 33000 deleted e-mails, Bill Clinton’s tarmac meeting with Loretta Lynch, Anthony Weiner’s laptop, FBI Director Comey’s flip-flop, Jill Stein’s recount, “Pizzagate”, etc., etc., …

Crikey! Oliver Stone himself would have to go on a week long tequila, cocaine and peyote bender to come up with a script even half as entertaining as the ongoing thriller playing out for real right now in Washington DC.

And Trump still hasn’t been sworn in as the president! He won’t be for a while, too …

That’s why I’m more than a little worried. The Democrats aren’t remotely close to accepting that The Donald actually won, let alone that he whooped their sorry asses fair and square! So, as zero hour approaches Clinton’s Corruptocrats are becoming insanely desperate. No kidding, they’re like Terminator 2‘s liquid metal assassin in the film’s climax, frantically morphing into each of its humanoid forms as it descends flailing and shrieking to its doom in the bubbling industrial magma.

And now they have settled on one lie in particular: Hillary lost because … Russian hackers.

Without a doubt, it’s the biggest, dumbest political porky this century. And it seems they’ve talked themselves into actually believing it. They’re all in, as are the mainstream media – now laughably warning against “fake news” in the alt-media – as well as some (or most?) in the CIA, the apparent source of the vague cyber-attack claims. And they’re gonna thrash it until the wheels fall off!

Speaking of which, check out this rather alarming post about how Putin’s favourite chauffeur bought the farm. His violent death was chillingly reminiscent of high-tech offing methods recommended by creepy former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell. (Be sure to scroll down for the video of his interview. It’ll make your skin crawl.)

With this in mind, remember that the CIA are seriously saying Trump is Vlad’s man in DC. (I know, it sounds so silly. But that’s their claim. Really.)

Would they be mad enough to do something akin to what they seem likely to have engineered in Russia – even if it’s just to gently terrify a few dozen Electoral College voters into changing their minds? Are they that unhinged and unscrupulous?

Well, I don’t think so. But given how much like a movie the last few months have been, I’m not totally certain …

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying I’ll be much more relaxed when the inauguration’s down and dusted and Donald J Trump is officially POTUS. With the dark prequel over we can look forward to the next instalment of this blockbuster series.

Working title: MAGA!

Matt Hayden lives in Sydney. He maintains several blogs including Die, Fluffy Wuffy, Die!