The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Clint, I'm letting go.

    By Oxy Mora on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 12:04pm |

    ---letting go of a small stash of money which rounds out my contributions to the President for the Primary season. Clint, you didn't weaken my commitment to the President, you strengthened it. And I'm letting go of you as well as some cash which at my age is not all that easy to earn back.

    I feel good about my additional contributions to Obama. I feel like the kid in me who spent his last dime at the country fair and came home with empty pockets but with a smile on his face.

    Clint, I was actually worried that your performance at the Convention might swing some votes to Romney's camp. But that would have taken a rational and composed effort on your part. What you demonstrated was a semi-detached person who proved he was as obsolescent as his abashed host. The person I continue to admire is the fair minded adult in charge, the energetic person who is in the prime of his career and who now occupies the chair of the Presidency.

    My contribution today feels right because it represents my values rather than my consumer wants. I most likely would fare better economically---for at least the first two years---under a Romney administration. But when I look at the impending regressive social agenda, the snide and self delusional ignorance of climate change denial, and the reality of a Casino Magnate and John Birch heirs picking our President I can't think of my own needs. I want to fight even harder against the march of the right wing in this country.

    So, Clint, that fantasy group of "letting go of Obama" supporters which was the target of your nursing-home-level one man show are not letting go today. As for the other target group, the block of angry white voters who reflexively respond to your "Dirty Harry" ethos, you may have warmed some Republican hearts in Tampa. However, it's ironic that when your body of work is praised not for its superficial violence but for the artistry of it, that you would pander to a meat hungry audience not known for its love of art, but an audience waiting for a chance to excoriate food stamps for children, have a good sneer at the scientists who are attempting to preserve our heritage of a clean Mother Earth, or throw an elbow at the poorest and weakest among us.

    Mr. Eastwood, the noise you hear now is not the crowd who clapped at your disrespectful and insulting performance in Tampa, but the sound of your reputation and body of work hitting the archives of infamy--at least in my view of you. In the total absence of facts or concrete policies exhibited by either you or the Republican nominee last night, you threw yourself and your body of work, like pearls before the swine, at a crowd primed to feel anger at the President. With no specifics and an obviously unprepared act it is hard to conclude other than that the objective of your appearance was to tap into that anger. If you would so disrespect yourself by such a cheap stunt why should I continue to have any respect for you or your work?

    Comments

    In the total absence of facts or concrete policies exhibited by either you or the Republican nominee last night, you threw yourself and your body of work, like pearls before the swine.....

    Yes!  Ah, while dday is on sabbatical, sadly, there is no one designated to award you his line of the day award, but I'm sure he would deliver it to you for this!

    While I endorse and agree with your terrific post, a part of me wants to believe that the Clint on the RNC stage yesterday was not the man we knew, but an old, befuddled Doppelganger who showed up in his place.  (OMG, his wife has a reality show on cable about her life as Mrs. Eastwood - something I can't imagine the Clint of yesteryear would sanction.  Pathetic.)


    by Aunt Sam on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 1:08pm

    I think there were a lot of people who were shocked at Eastwood's performance--and appearance.  Once I stopped laughing and shaking my head, I felt sad.

    I didn't know about his wife's show.  That's even more pathetic.  What's this world coming to?


    by Ramona on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 1:58pm

    Sad really Clint Eastwood has gotten really really old.. Now imagine that 82 year old man without Clint's money, subsisting solely on social security. He gets handed a government voucher and told to shop around for a private health insurance plan. How successful do you think he's going to be at that?


    by ocean-kat on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 2:29pm

    Right.  One thing's sure:  He wouldn't get anywhere near the Republican National Convention.


    by Ramona on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 2:36pm

    I agree with LuLu - I thought he entertained the crowd - yes, he's an old man, but he's especially appealing to the old folks, and the GOP needs the Medicare bunch, no?

    As for Clint having the right to speak his mind and stake his opinion, I fully respect it, and has little to do with him making movies.

    His views overall are much more supportive of women's right to choose, gay rights, etc., so it is strange to see his speech as a "conservative", and after Million Dollar Baby all the say-no-to-euthanasia crowd was giving him hell. (wassername on the tube in Florida was the big rallying cry for the born again crowd)

    I'm just amazed why many around here seem to get burned by a bit of free speech and differing opinion. At least Clint said we should be out of Afghanistan, aside from implying it was Obama who didn't ask the Russians how that went. Oh well. No country for old men.


    by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 2:42pm

    Right.  There is something to that right to speak one's mind and stake one's opinion.  Nice to have that kind of freedom, even here at dag.


    by Ramona on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 3:01pm

    I just checked my Facebook page where I have ten people 'friended'. here is the entry and five responses about Eastwood.

    A tiny sampling of opinions from my facebook page.

    First post:  Mitt who? Clint Eastwood for President!

    Five responses:

    I second that!!!

    Amen!

    Get off my White House lawn.

    What Mr. President, you want to me to do what, I'm sorry I can't do that to myself. Gotta love Clint!

    I agree!!!


    by A Guy Called LULU on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 3:04pm

    Partisans spin to defend their team. From the highest level politician to the most common person on the street partisans will attempt to spin bad news into good. If Eastwood had appeared at the Democrat convention and gave a similar speech you'd see some people here offering a totally different take on his speech than they are offering now. Those friends on your facebook page would change their tune also.

    Many of us here know exactly what happened to Clint up on that stage. We've seen it with our parents and grandparents. Even the elderly know what happened. They call it a senior moment. Every time I visit my parents at their retirement village I see the people there laughing at senior moment jokes. But its like laughing at Chaplin falling off a ladder or slipping on a banana peel. They know and the jokes are a way of laughing away the pain. They're sympathetic because they know its happening to them or will be soon. We should be sympathetic too because it will happen to all of us someday if we live long enough. Hopefully not on national television though.


    by ocean-kat on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 4:27pm

    I hear what you are saying and I think that it, partisan spin, is often the case or the explanation. I do not think it is the entire case this time. The original Facebook post was put up by my nephew who is in his early 40's and who I have never known to be particularly interested in politics. The responses are from his friends. I think they liked The old fart just as much as they said they did.

     Did I forget to mention that they are Texans too. Might not have been fair to leave that out.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 4:39pm

    Oh, I'm fully acquainted with senior moments.  All of us old folks have them (I had them when I was young, too).  Most of us know how to compensate for them, and all of us would know to never, ever go up on a stage, even at the local fire hall, without being completely prepared.  Because we know about those senior moments.  What happened with Eastwood didn't seem to be senior moments as much as an attempt at improv gone flat.

    I'm betting he thinks he did just fine last night.  And why wouldn't he?  The crowd loved him.


    by Ramona on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 4:44pm

    Actually, I though Clint sounded like my old man with Alzheimers and the delayed stuttering and mumbling, but instead of ending up pointless nowheres, Clint's somehow always ended up at the actual point or joke. No, physically can't go fuck myself, no won't shut up, why don't we just leave Afghanistan tomorrow, conservatives in Hollywood undercover/not hotdogging, crying like a baby, a lot of unemployed...

    I of course could slap down each of the points, but in terms of speech given to the crowd, I think each cheering and laughing point was authentic - he gave them red meat as a "no country for old men" guy, and despite criticisms about "going on forever", it was a lot more intriguing and captivating than a standard America-fuck-yeah speech.

    Anyway, after the peanuts thread, I'm trying to fathom the more basic point of why there are these eclectic cliques that see things in pretty much exactly the same way, whether middle class white boy from the south or immigrant girl from horn of africa or Nova Scotian/Oxford hybrid Canadian/Brit or Lulu whatever his story, while several other cliques form that manage to see things in a completely different way, and then the Republicans and their various cliques.

    It's the same for how we see Clint, fathom health care, talk about Afghanistan or Gitmo, Wall Street - why are we such pack animals, and how can there be so many ways of looking at things to support all these cliques? Objectively someone may be "right", but that's less my point. Who's making all these varied realities, and how are they programming the cliques?

    Oops, tinfoil hat slipped off, be back in a sec...


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 2:07am

    I don't see us as pack animals. That would require a leader.  I think it's more likely we all seek out those who agree with our own world views and we're comfortable enough in those settings to express our thoughts freely.  When someone agrees or comes up with an aha moment, we're not being sheep by locking hands or slapping backs.  We're following the patterns of all society since the days of the cavemen.  Solidarity.  Camaraderie.  All for one and one for all.

    If someone comes at us in what might be perceived as  a threatening or menacing way,  we've established a bond that requires that we band together.  It's what makes us human, and as humans we're about as imperfect as we are awesome.


    by Ramona on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 8:26am

    Not sure packs require a leader.

    Still, seems perception bifurcates. Why, I don't know.

    And yes, we guard territory, growl, show teeth. And howl like macaque monkeys.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 4:00pm

    I thought you meant pack animals like this.  I don't know how macaques howl; up here it's  coyotes.  But yes, that's how it is.


    by Ramona on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 5:17pm

    Wow!

    I wish I'd written this. The sentiment, the tone, the writing itself, is absolutely flawless. 

    Excellent!

    Eric


    by Wattree on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 3:39pm

    Beautifully written, Oxy.  I can't quite agree that it's time to give up on Eastwood as actor/director because of his bizarre actions at the RNC.  I'll still be able to separate the two.  I had an easier time with Mel Gibson, who always seemed like a creep, and sure enough, he is.

    Still, the Eastwood appearance was, as you said, an attempt to reach out to the angry-without-knowing-who-to-blame Republican crowd.  While it doesn't rise up to "unforgivable" for me, it is disgusting and even shocking in its naked pandering.  I think Clint's appearance will be relegated to joke status in the coming days and if he had a message it was as empty as that chair on the stage.

     


    by Ramona on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 4:35pm

    Just watched Clint's speech and, yes, it was strange but at least it teed up some populist issues for Obama/Biden/Democrats to swing at next week.  It would be risky but fun to see correspondents' dinner Obama respond to empty-chair Clint rather than empty-suit [fill in the blank].  For example, remind him that who actually created the Afghanistan, Gitmo and financial messes he has had to deal with.  

    Did you notice how the crowd cheered at the prospect of government job creation?  Though oddly just as much for the prospect of a businessman President who has done so much to offshore, outsource and lay off so many.  

    Now back to the RNC's YouTube channel to watch Ryan and Romney.  Yawn.

     


    by EmmaZahn on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 5:11pm

       I don't admire Obama. He ruthlessly slashed assistance to the poor; he signed the bill authorizing detention without trial, he dragged us into war in Libya; he didn't realize it was time to get out of Afghanistan. If I vote for him, it will be to prevent an invasion of Iran


    by Aaron Carine (not verified) on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 8:16pm

    If you think Obama 'ruthlessly slashed assistance to the poor' I wonder what adjective you would use for the Romney/Ryan planned cuts of funding for Medicaid, food stamps and Medicare? All to be used to balance tax cuts on millionaires and billionaires?

    As to 'dragging us into the war in Libya' the military action was approved by the UN Security Council, France and Britain took the lead in the air strikes, the US did not have one service member who was injured or killed, no US forces entered or are occupying the country, and the 'war' or civil uprising was over within 6 months. If you think that is mismanagement of US foreign policy I would frankly question your judgment.


    by NCD on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 9:26pm

    So any war we wage the President runs without co.ngressional approval is okay if it's over within 6 months?

    Talk about questioning judgment

    We are attacking people in other countries with armed drones - typically considered acts of war. But somehow this is war-not war.

    And have no doubt, without the US pulling the weight on armaments, logistics, intelligence, no fly zones, France and Britain wouldn't have entered much less won the proxy rebel war in Libya.

    And somehow it didn't seem to help us set a precedent for Syria, so I still don't understand what it was about.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 3:50pm