Sunday, September 02, 2012

Eastwood vs. Obama


Historians like Toynbee and Vico have argued long argued that civilizations have life-cycles that are similar to the arc of the human lifespan.  That is, societies pass through golden ages of youthful vitality, periods of stability and maturity, and eras of inertia and decline.

The actor Clint Eastwood unscripted and somewhat incoherent endorsement of Mitt Romney at the Republican national convention is only a small blemish on an otherwise distinguished career, but his rambling and unbecoming diatribe against President Obama only reinforces the notion that the Republican party is dangerously out of touch with reality and even a tad senescent. 

Eastwood’s performance undoubtedly left Republican image makers wincing.  However, the 82-year old actor’s views – and his crude attempts to caricature President Obama – are hardly an anomaly in the Republican Party.  Chastising Obama for failing to fulfill his campaign pledge to close Guantanamo, when in fact Republicans have obstructed all attempts to shutter the facility, is as disingenuous and reality-defying as Paul Ryan’s attempt to blame candidate Obama for the closure of a Detroit auto plant that shut its doors in the waning days of the Bush administration.

Eastwood’s and Ryan’s jabs at President Obama were reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s false but sincerely held belief that acid rain was caused by trees.  But what happens to a political party, or a country, when so many demonstrably false beliefs are widely held by the population?

Conservatives deny the possibility that global warming could be a real or manmade phenomenon.  They also hew to a demonstrably false ideology, which insists that free markets never fail, tax cuts pay for themselves, and government regulations are unnecessary to prevent economic crises.

The Republican ideology failed spectacularly last time it was tried.  Bush’s tax cuts busted the budget and deregulation allowed the financial sector to run amok.  As a result, America’s financial system nearly collapsed.  Astonishingly, Republicans refuses to acknowledge the bankruptcy of its ideological agenda.  Instead, they’ve taken to blaming the Obama administration for the ills the Republican agenda inflicted on the United States.

This sorry state of affairs was symbolized by Clint Eastwood’s rather lame mock interview with an empty chair, which supposedly represented President Obama. Eastwood’s shtick may have come across as entertaining to a certain segment of angry white male voters, but his crude characterizations of Obama will probably come across as the vulgar stereotypical distortions they are to the demographic groups that will decide the election (namely, Hispanics, women, and independents).  No wonder, Romney’s political operatives were reportedly cringing during Eastwood’s performance.

Eastwood is not senile, but a certain segment of the Republican Party – the birthers, those who think Obama is closet Muslim or a covert socialist, or those who think Obama bears primary responsibility for the jobs crisis in America – is dangerously untethered to reality.  Ironically, the politician most responsible for America’s current misfortune – George W. Bush – was absent once again from the Republican convention.  The American icon Clint Eastwood’s showdown with an empty chair may have fell flat.  But what is more telling is the Republican Party’s failure to engage in an honest dialogue about the legacy of George W. Bush, a man who can’t show up at his own party’s convention because he is so deservedly reviled.

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