My girlfriend and I watched The Magic Christian last night with a bottle of Purple Trillium, and though the film is set in 1960's London, I was really struck by how right on it still is, and still screamingly funny. Peter Sellers, one of my favorites of all time, is brilliant.
Certainly, as the Wikipedia article suggests, one could take exception to the "cruelty" Guy Grand and his son show to prove their point, but I would point out that, as social commentary, one cannot spare cruelty. Either you go for the throat, or you don't.
Anyway, in the film, as the "Revolution" begins (see above), you see the most bourgeois of English society willing to jump into a vat of shit, piss and vomit in order get the money. Certainly, when we extrapolate that into these United States now, one only has to watch "reality" television to see this-or a political debate.
Watching the Democratic Debate last Thursday, it was difficult to forget that it may take as much as half a billion to become president. This fact alone is killing our democracy-and yeah, I know that some people argue "money=free speech", but I would point out that, by this logic, this means that those with the most money have much free-er speech than you or I. This same operation, to a lesser degree, takes place in all sectors of life in this republic.
Anyway, watching the bourgeois free for all that was the debate, a couple of things struck me;
- We learned very little about anything (to be expected, of course, this was the candidates' cotillion), aside from which candidates looked more presidential.
- Very few questions were answered directly (again, to be expected-these are, afterall, career politicians), and were, instead, used as a segue into some asinine anectdote that only tangentially had anything to do with what was asked.
First off, Chris Matthews (the Larry Merchant of Political Commentary) went on and on about Hillary looking the most Presidential. The quick answer there is, historically no. Chris Dodd looked the most Presidential, according to our previous Presidents. Run some Kiwi Black Shoe through his hair, and...voila...Reagan. As is...he's so old money establishment that if you gave him spats and a top hat, he could be the guy on the front of Monopoly.
Anyway, back to Hillary: She did look Presidential, and you could almost detect a human being underneath the pre-programmed answers-just like Max Headroom.
Barack looked great, but, in my estimation, didn't answer so great, which maybe a good thing, or not.
Joe Biden didn't fuck up anything up that bad, which is a plus, but like Steve Chabot, how can you trust someone with that kind of denial about male pattern baldness. However, his Iraq plan is might be the only solution.
John Edwards looked good, answered okay, and did the required Bill Clinton empathy squint. Talked about the poor and the working class, the only top tier candidate to do so. Fumbled about the $400 hair cut.
Bill Richardson looked okay, answered okay, except about gun control, where he became incoherent. Did the Bill Clinton passive agressive thumb point several times, the first of which required that Kizzle and I do a shot of Clontarf Irish Whiskey, as per debate tradition.
Then, of course, we had our other, no chance in hell candidates, one of which we may be all the poorer for;
Mike Gravel looked like your drunk Grampa, and sounded like him, too. He actually pointed fingers. He actually said that the other candidates scared him. He may actually be right, in some respects (Hell, even drunk Grampas get it right from time to time).
Dennis Kucinich looked like a keebler elf, but roared like a lion. Way too "liberal" for this bunch, but you know what: In your heart, you know he's right.
Watching these folks roll around in the mud, trying to be polite, dodging the sort of questions one might get when running for Student Council President, made me think that there has to be a better way, especially with so much at stake, to pick the person who can pull our asses out of the fire.
Then I remembered: It was this sort of thing that got us here in the first place.
Magic Christians, indeed.
A primary race is where we get to act on things we wouldn't dare to do if the outcome meant a Republican might end up in the White House. Next year we will have to support whoever the Democrats put up, but until then we can support Kucinic because he is too liberal to be on stage with the rest of them, or Edwards because he is the only one with the balls and brains to talk about class. I would argue that we must do this because, by pushing the limits now, we can affect the agenda of the 08 Dem candidate, even if she is Hillary. Politics doesn't get any better than this.
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