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?
Shh! Don't tell the rats why they lost.
Let them continue to implode and self destruct.
He's just a poor boy
From a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
__________________________________________
Magnifico (but Beelzebub still has a devil put aside for you)
"Thunderbolt and Lightning...
Very, very frightening...
ME!"
GALILEO! Galileo!
Figaro!
Funny how a leftist-ish band with the name Queen and a gay lead singer have soo many fans on a conservative board
Buck: you still in?
bttttt
Buck: you still in?
join the party!!
easy come easy go will you let me go?
bismillah no! we will not let you go!
JKerry's personal fave.
So you think you can love me and spit in my eye,
So you think you can love me and leave me to die!
(Or, something like that!)
We're going to have to move to a new song soon!
That's ok, As anyone can see, doesn't really matter to me....
You might say it cooked Kerry's goose.
Oh Baby!
Can't do this to me baby
Just gotta get out
Just gotta get right outta here
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me
Then again, I did look to see who's more Republican in the Hollywood bunch (Heather Locklear, for example).
I think the behavior of the 9/11 commision on TV contributed. Plus the fact that they all left the hearings as soon as the cameras were off. Bob Kerrey seemed certifiable during the Dr. Rice hearing.
anyway the wind blows....
((((Bongs))))
But wasn't this a major theme of the Kerry campaign and a staple of today's 'Rat Party?
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