The Senator, the Stagecraft, and the Snap of the Cuffs

When Alex Padilla was handcuffed at a press event, it wasn’t just a clash of politics — it was a glimpse into a democracy where performance trumps principle, and even senators get silenced.

There’s something almost paradoxically American — and by “American” I mean both (1) the late-stage bureaucratic sprawl and (2) the televisual, hollowed-out performance of politics-as-brand — about what happened to Senator Alex Padilla in Los Angeles, yesterday.

It’s the kind of event that, had it appeared in a Don DeLillo novel, you’d accuse him of bein…