19 December 2011

Democrats enlist Hollywood to sustain the illusion of difference

Image by the Anti-Republican Crusaders.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —You know the Democrats are desperate when they haul out a multi-millionaire celebrity, in this case, George Clooney, to make the case for a second term for Pres. Obama.

George Clooney is fine actor, but he has no qualifications as a political analyst with insight, but that seems unimportant to mainstream liberals and conservatives who look to comedians and professional windbags as news sources in a discourse largely dominated by emotions.

Clooney says we should stick by and stand up for the people we elected.  OK, but what about Obama’s obligation to stand up for interests of the people who voted for him? Perhaps Clooney feels his loyalty has been rewarded. After all, he speaks from the vantage point of the most privileged 1%, which continues to benefit from policies developed for decades by both parties that have hurt, with varying degrees of severity, the other 99% of Americans.

Clooney then tries to imagine Obama as a Republican—not much of a stretch there—and how he might craft his re-election campaign pitch to the GOP faithful. I don’t think Clooney has much insight into the GOP because I doubt they would be moved his claim that Obama helped keep jobs in this country. If Obama wanted to court Republican support for a second term, his pitch would more likely sound like this:

You knew where I stood even before I took office. I supported the Wall Street bailouts even before John McCain did. I proved my loyalty to Big Money by appointing a team of financial advisors from the Wall Street “A” list. Wall Street has acknowledged my allegiance by dumping boatloads of money into my campaign coffers.

When push came to shove and the American people thought I might appoint someone who would seriously regulate the consumer lending industries, I pulled the plug on Elizabeth Warren.

I have stood arm-in-arm with you on the War on Terror and will approve National Defense Authorization Act, which now means we also have Congressional approval to kidnap anyone suspected of terrorism anywhere in the world and can hold them indefinitely without being charged with a crime or the cost of a trial. I didn’t close down Guantanamo Bay either, did I? 

Postscript: Being a celebrity member of the 1% doesn’t automatically determine your view of reality, as actor Matt Damon illustrated in some comments recently reported by The Huffington Post: “I've talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician’ …You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”

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