Living on the cusp of red/blue America leads occasionally to the occasionally extremely unpleasant and awkward encounter. The provinciality of most liberals, many of whom clearly do not know any conservatives, never fails to surprise me and has led the virtuous wife to shake her head in dismay whenever I am caught up in another futile and frustrating discussion with one of the local liberal worthies. Somehow I still feel that engaging them on their own turf and being reasonable and Socratic may occasionally bear fruit. Unfortunately this is now almost impossible.
The summer weekends in New England have been almost unbearably beautiful and poignant. After last summers cold and rainy season, which wiped out many of our local events, this summer has been sunny, not too hot and with a Colorado like humidity. Rain, on the rare occasions it has occurred has stuck to the Camelot script. This weekend was loaded with events. The American Cancer Society sponsored a cancer walk and fundraiser and since our middle son is a survivor of childhood leukemia it was moving and a time for great gratitude. A friend in his mid fifties who recently received a bone marrow transplant for lymphoma from his brother was a keynote speaker. Today there was a fair on our town green with rides, book and bake sales, food and an auction. In the evening there was a "Pickin' & Fiddlin' competition. Coupled with children going in all directions all the time it has been quite a weekend and it's still only Saturday night.
Back to Fahrenheit 911. At the fair this afternoon, I was talking to a friend, when a woman I do not know came over and asked our mutual acquaintance if she had seen Fahrenheit 911. I couldn't resist and asked if she had enjoyed it. She said yes. I then asked if she agreed with the basic premises of the movie. At this point an elderly gentlemen in the group interjected the following joke.
George Bush and John Kerry were engaged in an ice fishing contest. After one hour Kerry had a lead of 5 fish to none. After 2 hours the score was 10 to nil and after a third hour a now comfortable Kerry had 25 while the hapless POTUS had still to catch a single fish. Bush then called his father and then came back to the contest and said, "it's not fair, and Kerry cut a hole in the ice". Amused chuckles all around.
I continued to probe the lady, gently and calmly. Which premises did she think were key. She replied that the US going it alone and not taking into account the opinions of both the Europeans and the Arabs was enhancing the recruitment efforts of Al-Quad. I asked if she thought bringing liberty and democracy to the Middle East would enhance American security, she replied yes. I asked if she really wanted Iran or Syria to have nuclear weapons-she sensed me moving in for the kill-and replied Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons-
Blah blah blah and it went downhill from there. I also asked her if she thought bush was dumb-after the expected answer I asked if she also thought Reagan was dumb-she averred that she knew some of Reagan's speechwriters and they were worried about his spontaneous utterances.
After all of this frustration capped off by another worse episode tonight-I realized what Fahrenheit 911 is all about
It's how they know each other-It's the code that they're in on the joke-that getting rid of Bush is more important than national security, than the truth, than any semblance of rational discourse. Rational debate is for the rubes-since they hold the American people in contempt Fahrenheit 911 in their opinion may actually work. I thnk it is because I share so many cultural referents with them that they are particularly upset when I tell them I think the president is not dumb and is doing a great job.When I casually drop that people I know who went to HBS with him don't think he is dumb that they realize they've been had. I guess on some level I am being disingenuous and since it doesn't get anyplace maybe I'll stop. but help me out what's the alternative.(Sorry for the aside) Of course the movie only preaches to the choir but their denial is so strong they don't know this.
To further beat this meme to death,I'l lay out what Michael Moore's conservative bizarro world counterpart might say
John Forbes Kerry is an orphaned Soviet mole. His father the Foreign Service officer and well-known internationalist was a similar plant and John was recruited while in school in Switzerland. That would explain his enlisting in the army during Vietnam. Although the intent was to plant him deeply as a sleeper the Vietnam War served as an opportunity to accelerate the timetable.. By having this articulate Yale graduate, get a wide audience with the media and congress his controllers decided to go for broke and destabilize the US government right then and there. They pulled out all the stops and never imagined that the leftward drift of the US establishment would allow Kerry to function and have a political career despite his seeming to have burned all his bridges. Years go by and Kerry is in limbo-he expects to be found out and exposed especially after the fall of the Soviet Union. But it doesn't happen-he marries the widder lady and ………You know this would explain his ambivalence, his tentativeness and his incredible reserve-He's always afraid he'll yell out "I'm a Commie-a red, a mole, a plant-"
Now imagine the howls of the usual subjects if this scenario were filmed.
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