The America Show
Huffington Post gave us Paul Begala retorting a criticism this week, as he noted
the dems are "Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight" by not promoting their
message, instead of all the consultants, voter files, computer geeks, phone banks,
etc. He closes by describing his latest published tome (349 pages) in two words:
Progressive Patriotism.
Shades of Ainsley Hayes, in her introductory episode of "West Wing" --
described in TV Guide's episode summary as "right-wing lawyer" --
when she confronts her GOPster allies at a fine restaurant, after they derogate
the staff of almost-perfect president, Jeb Bartlet. We the audience are led to
believe she will follow her stated intentions: refuse the offer to serve among
her intellectual/ideological enemies. But, then Aaron Sorkin makes a brilliant
stroke, almost Begala-like in its deviousness, by exercising the writer's "god" option:
placing Ainsley so she will witness bold, decisive presidential staffers confront
a human crisis. The door to the Oval Office closes, her face embraced by realization
that Important Decisions are occurring.
Contributor |
Cut to:
fancy dining table in fancy restaurant [isn't that where
we'd expect her GOPster colleagues to casually take sustenance?],
where the male-female couple
babble about their joy at hearing of Leo McGarry's disappointment when Ainsley
has refused the offer, and also how they despise the Bartlet White House. Ainsley
dresses them down firmly, acknowledging certain disagreements, and then defending
the staff she's just witnessed, asserting that they "are patriots" and
further, with a suitable dramatic pause, "And I am their lawyer."
Patriotism: Define Your Terms
The thorn
in the dems' side is the lingering, public-debate question:
Who's a patriot? Or, what defines patriotism. And the use
of the "T-word": traitor. While the dems had
giddy glee at using such language to attack Zell Miller
for his treachery, treason, traitorous betrayal, such words
are denied by the media judges when conservatives dare
attack liberals as unpatriotic. It is a sore point, the
residue of their refusal to attack Stalin with one-tenth
the energy which conservatives devoted to attacking Hitler.
This very day sees Hollywood resentment at continued judgment
of their poor judgment about Stalin, their weak-at-best
support of the Cold War, and of course enthusiastic embrace
of draft-dodgers and war-protestors during the Vietnam
era. Aaron Sorkin set up that first Ainsley episode explicitly
to have a defense of the liberal Bartlet administration
be uttered by a Republican. And as TV Guide branded
her, a right-wing Republican at that.
Enuf said, eh! Sorry, never enough said, as Begala this week tells us of progressive
patriotism becoming their new mantra. Not 'liberal' patriotism, nor 'socialist'
patriotism -- the new label is to be 'progressive' to dilute use of liberal
labels. They are flinching, and it is apparent with Begala's mantra-like employment
of his new term. Mixed with his assertion that methods and means are not enough
to win: you must also promote your MESSAGE.
And the message is: WE'RE PATRIOTS, TOO! His is the real-world version of Sorkin's
sneaky manipulation of Ainsley into uttering a lefty mantra for a TV audience. "West
Wing" is fictional agony for conservatives, but Bagala's crowd in power
would be very real agony. "West Wing" is dead, RIP -- but Begala
is very much alive. And on one thing he is right, if not Right: MESSAGE IS
THE MEANS TO POWER.
Levine, McLuhan, et al: Sizzle v. Steak
Michael
Levine, publicist to the stars [and for a few minor tsars
as well, in politics], asserts his "Tiffany Theory" of
promotion: if you present a gift within a box with the
Tiffany label, it enhances the recipient's perception of
the gift's value. Marshall McLuhan told us that the medium
is the message. Many ad flacks adhere to the belief that
an ad doesn't sell a steak to the hungry buyer, but instead sells
the sizzle. Codicil to all the above: folks is buying
steak, not sizzle, and if the medium has no serious message,
or the Tiffany box contains a clump of fetid, rotting manure,
ain't nobody buying the product, idea, message, theory,
theology, politics or ideology. Packaging is important,
presentation makes a difference. But we buy steak for its
actual taste and texture; all the sizzle is merely foreplay,
a pretext, the warm-up or first-act to the actual dining
expectation. Once we've found the steak to be tough, or
bitter, or rotted, we not only are put off by the steak
at the moment, the "Tiffany label" that may have
promoted it is now tainted.
And getting a bitter experience out of your taste buds takes a lot of mouthwash.
Thus, today Begala is still trying to wash out the bitter taste of the DNC
and liberal dalliance with commies, and fondness for war-protesting flag-burners.
While he loves 'traitor' applied to those who are disloyal to the DNC's own "flag" he
is quite concerned that the patriot label be allowed to be pasted on his team
in the coming campaign.
And we must not allow the American people to be fooled. Just as they keep as
their own legitimizing label that of 'civil rights' and 'racial justice' characterizations
-- and laugh at any claim by the right to have had a role in those movements
-- we must make sure that this message is clear: PATRIOTISM IS A RIGHTWING
LABEL. It is our "Tiffany" brand, it belongs to us, we hold the patent
and copyright and trademark on patriotism, reaching back to when Hollywood
used "patriot" as an insult, a slur, and condemnation of their enemy.
Message Massaged
Unfortunately,
we are weak on message right now. The media is not cooperating,
and talk-radio is weakening in its influence -- ratings
are down, the audience
sated, the hosts stuck in old phrases and worn mantras. And one Tiffany box
has been shredded by Dubya: Fiscal Restraint. It is an insult to sailors
to
talk of spending like drunken sailors: ship crews on liberty are spending
their own money! Congressional rightwingers have surrendered
that one holy grail
for the coming generation. Thus, patriotism is one grail we must not allow
to slip into the hands of Begala. They may yet get away with "progressive" as
their new label -- been at it almost a decade, not yet successful -- but we
must not let the Ainsley Hayes maneuver become a fait accompli in
the real world of real politics. The reel White House of Bartlet the Perfect
President was under the godly control of the godly writer Aaron Sorkin, making
a propaganda point with his writer's nib.
But this coming battle with foreign forces cannot be won with Begala's
boneheads in power: PELOSI, REID, MOORE, GAROFALO, CLOONEY, et al. Not
a rabid patriot
in the crowd; when we use that term in the future to describe them, it should
be in the quotation marks of irony: "patriot" Pelosi, "patriot" Reid, "patriot" Michael
Moore/Clooney/Garofalo.
Begala's book title, and his softening the pre-publication ground for it,
are signs of the times to come: dems grabbing the one remaining "Tiffany" label
for their own use. We're naked in the sandstorm on fiscal responsibility, for
the coming two decades [Humpty Dumpty comes to mind as the metaphor], so our
one remaining trump card must be held dear, and kept under our copyright. For
you can believe that otherwise, we'll be left holding a pile of fetid manure
after this election.
Begala has shown his hand early. Let's thus prepare early, and win the
coming game of political poker with the only hole-card, the only trump-card,
remaining
in our deck. Sorkin had absolute godly control of Ainsley's branding liberals
as patriots; in real politics, we have at least something to say about how
that script is written, and how it plays out in the scenes yet to come. CRO
