Posted on 11/10/2004 2:52:41 PM PST by rickmichaels
May one gloat if one was right? Indulge me. Last December, in a review of retiring Georgia Senator Zell Miller's book about the Democratic Party, A National Party No More, I concluded that "the Republicans will not only canter into power in 2004, the Democratic party may find itself on the verge of a total meltdown." I knew Miller got it right when he said it was all about values.
The dichotomy between the parties' values is nowhere better illustrated than in their respective assessments of celebrity entertainers. John Kerry over-estimated their influence and embraced them, while George W. Bush took their real political measure and demonized them.
When CNN's Aaron Brown was asked if he could isolate a tipping point in the campaign, he said it was the moment, during last year's Super Bowl halftime show, when the bodice of Janet Jackson's costume "accidentally" ripped, exposing her breast on network television. It wasn't the tawdriness of the ploy or her transparently bogus embarrassment that so rankled ordinary people; it was the fact that it happened on their turf.
Social conservatives, including evangelical Christians, live and let live when it comes to Hollywood. Trash-talking rappers and bimbos can do what they like on MTV. But the Super Bowl is Middle America territory. Jackson crossed a critical line. In her exhibitionism, the culture of prurience she emblemizes invaded conservative homes. They felt ambushed, even a little violated. Urban sophisticates found the incident and the blowback it generated hilarious, a tempest in a teapot. Instead of reading the righteous anger of moralists as tea leaves, they mocked it.
Entertainers were almost universally anti-Bush. Their presence in the media and at rallies guaranteed a wide audience for their views. The enormous publicity generated by Al Franken's book and radio show, and Michael Moore's hugely successful movies, created a sense of invincibility amongst the Democratic party faithful. Even many conservatives were sucked into the despairing belief that an unstoppable juggernaut had been created by Fahrenheit 9/11, and the ubiquitous Hollywood spokespeople urging support for Kerry.
What Democrat organizers failed to realize was that most Wal-mart Americans have no respect for entertainers beyond their ability to entertain. Kerry made a huge mistake at a star-studded rally when he said that Hollywood "is the heart and soul of America." This was moments after Whoopi Goldberg had made such crudely obscene allusions to the President's name that even her colleagues winced. Identifying himself with these boorish antics was foolish. That Kerry's team didn't realize it was foolish speaks volumes about their alienation from the real "heart and soul" of their nation.
Perhaps the worst decision was to invite the Dixie Chicks to perform with Bruce Springsteen in the final days of the campaign. Last year their lead singer, Natalie Maines, announced at a London concert that she was "ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." Anti-Bushism at home is one thing; sucking up to foreigners and currying favour by feeding their anti-Americanism is another. Country music fans are a patriotic bunch. Radio stations boycotted their music, and radio talk shows hummed with anti-Chicks rancour. The Dixie Chicks may well have tipped the balance in Ohio.
Then there was the MTV "Rock the Vote" celebrity advocate program, featuring such political luminaries as Drew Barrymore, Robert Downey Jr. and P. Diddy ("C'mon y'all. Please let's get hip hop on [Bush and Kerry's] ass"). Instead of being charmed, Walmart Americans were disgusted that ditzy screwballs, dope addicts and thug-culture yahoos were preaching civic duty to them, the pillars of society. Bush cannily introduced the phrase "Hollywood values" to his stump-speech ridicule of the Democrats, and got rave responses.
The Democrats are fascinated with entertainers because, for them too, success is more about performance than deeply held convictions. Kerry was perceived to have won all three debates, which aroused unrealistic expectations. What the Dems didn't grasp was that most voters don't assess character on the basis of verbal performance -- any actor can act, after all -- but on the ability to connect with their core beliefs, at which Bush excels, but Kerry routinely stumbles.
That Kerry considered pop entertainers value added to his campaign is an indication of his superficiality and his ignorance about the country he hoped to lead. When Bruce Springsteen pumped up the crowds, shouting that Kerry embodied the ideals of "who we are, what we stand for, what we fight for," Kerry beamed and crowed: "It doesn't get better than this."
In truth, it didn't get better than that. Who's The Boss now?
BTTT
Crazed Dumbocrats are now pointing the finger---not to say which finger----at the dum-dums who caused Kerry's ignominious defeat.
One story surfacing predictably points to Bill Clinton, and also fingers Alexandra Kerry's see-through dress, and the juvenile actions of rapper Sean Puffy Combs. Reports say Kerry's daughter "made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival last spring when she appeared on the red carpet in a see-through dress. Kerry campaign insiders snipe that all she did was rack up major expenses. She had an entourage of five people with her everywhere she went. A hairdresser, makeup artist, publicist and two assistants.
It ended up costing something like $8,000 a month. And she didn't exactly do anything.
Sean Puffy Combs the rap mogul made national headlines with his "Vote or Die" effort to get young voters to register and vote. But they never materialized at the polls. "He was just a nuisance," the Post quotes one Kerry aide as saying. "The whole thing was a joke. No one outside of New York or L.A. gives a hoot about this guy. All he did was get himself press."
The reports say Clinton and his top fundraiser DNC's McAuliffe caused the disaster and that Clinton's emergence in the closing days of the campaign "energized" the Republican base.
Yet to be fingered is goofball spouse Terayza who was the campaign's gay-loving mama, intent on staying coherent---unsuccessfully--- through the long, arduous campaign, by popping pills AM to PM.
Then there was foul-mouthed Whoppi Goldberg---"America's (gag) soul"---as Kerry called her. Whoppi got Dixie Chicked out of her job as Slim-Fast spokesthing b/c of her salacious remarks against GWB.....and the fact that Slimfast stock dropped a couple billion.
And how 'bout No-bounce Eddie VP wannabe who failed to unite a country hopelessly divided between non-aerosol hairspray and hard-to-hold styling gel.
Not to mention big-buck loser---Soros---who dropped some $25M into the losing effort ----although US taxes were funding this somehow, either through tax evasion, NPO and/or hedging schemes.
I don't know...diddy?
Hahahahaha...Kerry didn't get the Oscar..just got nominated.
Great article. Pretty well sums up flyover country.
Red
"Thunderbolt and Lightning...
Very, very frightening...
ME!"
GALILEO! Galileo!
Wrong. Really don't think J Jacksons antics had much to do with it as much as Hollywood's overall left leaning rancor did.
Ditto. I think it's interesting all the stereotypes the media is trying to use to marginalize the importance of the red states votes. It's just another indicator that they need more "foreign correspondents" to tell them what's really going on in this country. It would be much more effective than continually parroting each others columns in the echo chambers of New York and L.A.
Just explain to my why Jimmy Buffet was showcased?
I'm still shaking my head over Kerry's decision to do that. All he did was infuriate his base for zero gain - I can't imagine a single gun owner being fooled into thinking that Kerry was "pro-gun."
That Kerry didn't realize that this photo-op was such a loser is yet another reason why we are so fortunate that he didn't win.
Thank you for contacting PETA about political candidates who engage in blood sports. Please understand that PETA certainly opposes any activity which causes intentional harm to animals, including hunting and fishing.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational organization, PETA is prohibited from participating in any political campaigns or endorsing a particular candidate or party. However, we encourage you to contact the candidate or party that you are interested in directly; ask the party representatives for their position on animal rights, and tell the candidate that animal rights issues will influence your vote.
What a cop-out.
[Did I get it right?]
Maybe worse was his earlier political slaughter of that beautiful pheasant, and gloating over it.
What about Ahnold?
or Ronald Reagan?
Aren't they from Hollywood?
Like Buffett or not, he and Alan Jackson had one of the biggest country hits of the year with It's Five O'Clock Somewhere. His presence at the CMAs was appropriate.
"an indication of his [Kerry's] superficiality and his ignorance about the country he hoped to lead"
Being intellectually superior has it's drawbacks .. these kind of people LOSE THEIR COMMON SENSE; believing instead they have the answer for everything.
I don't think Kerry shot it...I think it was probably pre-emptively killed. It wasn't floppy - rigormortis had already set in. Sorta like Kerry himself!
kerry did himself in.
Yep.
He even flip flopped, presented contradictory images of animals. Save them (hamsters) kill them (geese).
I still say he didn't shoot either one of those birds. What real hunter lets a companion get photographed carrying his kill?
Bull. Kerry was behind in this campaign from start to finish. There was no tipping point. America has passed the point where a Northeast liberal can be elected president.
Note: Hillary Clinton is not from the Northeast.
Did Kerry have a Roman cleric read the poor bird's entrails to see how he would do in the election? If so, the reading had to be poor. By the way, who got to eat the bird or did they simply throw it away like they did the lunches they ordered but did not eat at Wendy's?
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