From Lincoln to Hamilton – the dramatisation of democracy through the ages

It would be difficult to do justice to the mutant-origami-like nature of the endgame in this presidency. Paul Taylor explores the plays and films that have tried to capture the concept of electioneering

Clockwise from top left: Lincoln, Hamilton, Her Naked Skin and Shampoo (Rex/Alamy)

One Republican senator resorted to a homely metaphor when he was asked about the traumatic events of Wednesday 6 January. Did he think that the outgoing president did any soul-searching when his supporters stormed the White House in protest at the election of Joe Biden, the Democrat who today will be sworn in as the 46th commander-in-chief?

“My personal view is that [Donald] Trump touched the hot stove on Wednesday and is unlikely to touch it again,” opined Roy Blunt, the GOP senator for Missouri. Reminded that some people in his own party were calling for their leader’s dismissal, Blunt insisted that it should be up to Trump whether he finished the last few days in the White House or resigned over inciting insurrection with his rabble-rousing speech that morning. The president has since become the first in history to be impeached twice.

To do justice to the mutant-origami-like nature of the endgame in this presidency, it would require the services of Dante in full, lurid Inferno. There has long been the need for a “Book of Elections” – an anthology of extracts that show how the concept of electioneering and the role and nature of democracy have been dramatised and analysed through the ages in works of art. The chaotic circumstances of the 2020 presidential election – and its long and horrific aftermath – have powerfully strengthened my conviction that there is a significant gap in the market.