Maudlin Mawkishness in the Age of the Gush

~~By Kenosha Marge

Supposedly we are now in the “Age of Obama”. I find it more the “Age of the Gush”. To me it seems an era of adults slobbering all over their keyboards or a microphone in spasms of adolescent lovesickness that should be embarrassing for anyone over the ago of 12.

These over-aged adolescents more than likely don’t realize how silly they look and sound because there are so many other fools acting the same way. It’s always easier to make an ass of yourself if others are doing it too. Misery isn’t the only one that loves company. Thus we are presented with group foolishness and many find that acceptable. It is a large and loud choral group of nitwitted nincompoops twittering their lovesickness for the entire world to see.

Will Obama be one of the few great presidents we have had? According to many of the mawkish minions worshipping at the Obamessiah’s feet, he all ready is. Who knew winning an election, a nasty contentious election filled with race baiting and misogyny was a sign of greatness? Coulda fooled me. It certainly exposes the thought processes, or lack thereof, of a lot of folks if that’s what they find heroic.

I have always found it amazing when people hero-worship any one let alone a politician. There are a few, very few, politicians here and there for whom I can find some small measure of respect. You probably have a few of your own. There are even those that I find worthy of genuine admiration at times for some specific reason.

Russ Feingold and his lonely stand against the Patriot Act is one instance. That was an act of courage and integrity I cannot remember ever seeing in another politician. Others may remember others acts of which I am unaware or have simply forgotten. I do know at the time I was very proud to have voted for a person of character.

On other issues, Feingold being a politician, he disappoints from time to time. Thus I don’t hero-worship, gush or in other ways act like an adolescent about the Senator from my home state. Letting him know when I think he’s right and letting him know when I don’t seems like an adult way to act and react. Maybe I just lack the gush gene.

Respect and even admiration is fine with me although all too often neither is earned. If certain politicians vote the correct way that most benefits our country they aren’t heroes, they’re just doing their damn job. And damn seldom do most of them do that.

This tendency of supposed adults to go all maudlin and gushy over some politician makes me nauseous. Perhaps it was just the way I was raised. We respected and admired certain people, even some politicians. We saved the worshipping for church on Sunday. I was raised to never trust a used car salesman or a politician.

I also turned to the media for news. Just that. I wasn’t looking to be entertained nor was I interested in some reporter’s opinion. What I expected then and still would like now is news. All I want is the facts. Give me them damn old boring facts and I’ll make up my own mind about how I feel and what I think. Don’t expect me to hero worship some media type for simply doing their job. These over-paid people so seldom do their job that when they do we all go into spasms of joy. How dumb is that?

Media types like politicians aren’t heroes/heroines when they do their job. They shouldn’t be lauded for doing what they are supposed to do but should get a good swift kick in the ass when they don’t. For what they are paid the very least we should get is competent reporting.

One politician once said: “The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal – that you can gather votes like box tops – is… the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. “

That politician was Adlai Stevenson at the Democratic National Convention on, August 18 1956. That was 53 years ago. Even then candidates were being put forth as “merchandise” and some people didn’t think it was a good idea. Wonder what ‘Ol Adlai would have thought of a PR Pres complete with acolytes fainting at his feet.

In this tech age where we are advertised “at” every waking minute many of our fellow citizens have allowed their cognitive abilities to deteriorate and just float along on a sea of admiration for people because they are told it’s the thing to do. God forbid that some over aged adolescent isn’t in with the cool crowd.

The adolescent raptures of people old enough to know better is a sign of our times. Not a pretty or encouraging sign. These people are old enough to know better. The cognitive discourse of the emerging generation is frightening. With some electronic gizmo residing in every available orifice, tats and piercings dominating their torsos and more misinformation stuffed inside their heads than would seem possible, they are the hope of the future.

Even the most rabid of gushers may find it hard to be hopeful about that. Even the dimmest of wits who finds their hero/heroine in the political arena may someday have a very small light go off in the back of their empty little heads and wonder why they were so exited about so and so. What had so and so done? What were their accomplishments? Why are they being touted as great?

Greatness may well be, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder. In which case a lot of eye tests need to be scheduled. Educating about the difference between cool and great might help, too.

And for heaven’s sake stop with the mawkish, maudlin, histrionic, theatrical, schmaltzy, gushy crap! Grow up America even if you are afraid to grow old.

Democratic Delegates Should See Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man” (1964) Before They Make Their HUGE MISTAKE Tonight…

Late on Sunday night (August 24), Turner Classic Movies aired “The Best Man,” the 1964 film based on Gore Vidal’s 1960 play about a power struggle for the Presidential nomination. The movie stars Henry Fonda playing Secretary of State William Russell, an intellectual in the Adlai Stevenson mode (Vidal said JFK was part of the blend) and Cliff Robertson, who plays Joe Cantwell, a brash Senator running as a populist who is maneuvering to stop Russell from winning the nomination (some reviewers think he’s “Nixonian.”)

Neither candidate has enough delegates on the first ballot, so watching this film is like experiencing “deja vu all” in many ways.

Along the way, the viewer witnesses all sorts of political shenanigans, which includes the hiding of a broken marriage, an attempt at blackmail through the threat of revealing a medical history of one candidate, and the revelation of the homosexual past of the another. (Cheating on a wife, however, is of little consequence in the scheme of things, unlike today.)

There are some great lines in this flick, many coming from the dying former President Hockstader who is reinvigorated by the battle for his endorsement; at one point he says, “There’s nothing like a low-down political fight to put the roses in your cheeks!” One of the best scenes involves  Hockstader and Cantwell.  Cantwell, who believes the ends justify the means of getting into office, including taking his positions based based on polling, is told by Hockstader that “there are no ends, Joe, only means.”  Hockstader also tells the stop-at-nothing Cantwell that if he begins to believe his own “myth” and then gets to the Oval Office without having any real ideas of his own, he’ll be creating a recipe for disaster. As the plot unfolds and Cantwell threatens to reveal a secret from Russell’s past, Hockstader has another great line: “It’s not that I mind your being a bastard. . . . It’s your being such a stupid bastard, I object to.”

At another point in the film Hockstader, reflecting on how times have changed since his campaign days,  observes that when he ran “you had to pour God over everything, like ketchup.”  Back in 1960, the issue of Kennedy’s Catholicism came up, but today, we’re really back to the “ketchup” days with religious groups being pandered to by the Democratic Party like never before.

Howard K. Smith, then a real network anchor, appears in the scenes covering the Convention which makes it seem even more realistic.  This is a real rough-and-tumble affair…and the votes swing quickly at the surprise ending. This film sure made me wish that we were back to the old-style conventions! As a kid, I remember Mike Wallace prowling the conventions and the genuine excitement on the floor.  There was much less polish and a damned site more more grit and excitement.

You’ll see how little has changed in nearly 50 years with respect the status of women in the Party beyond the lack of concern over the philandering of a candidate.  Ann Southern plays Mrs. Gammadge, who despite here flighty image, is a savvy women’s leader who knows all the players and knows her own power as she drops hints to the rivals about how they should appeal to women.  But the scene at the pre-Convention dinner clearly displays where the REAL power lies.  During his pre-Convention speech, Hockstader says to the delight of the men in the crowd that after the Party takes care of a couple of constituencies, which includes the “colored” folks,  “then we’ll take care of the downtrodden majority, the ladies” to a roomful of appreciative laughter.

Last on the list then…and last on the list now…So, have we really come a long way, baby???  If you ever get to see “The Best Man” you’ll probably say, “NO!”

If the delegates could tear themselves away from the trendy “eco-food” for a couple of hours before tonight’s fake “roll call” to view “The Best Man,” they might be in for a shock and realize that they could use their power to right a ship that’s taking on water.  But they’d have to really face themselves and be brutally honest about who they’re all falling in line for.   Sadly, as they struggle to stay in the “no-fry” zone and eat their fruits and veggies, they won’t have time to really think about doing the right thing, which tonight  should be nominating “The Best Woman.”

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SPOILER ALERT

For an excellent rundown on the plot (which doesn’t give away the ending), check out this essay.

If you want to know who actually wins the nomination, check here.

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For a brief bio on Gore Vidal which explains his family ties to both the Gore and Kennedy families, and his runs for the House and Senate,  see here. Gore Vidal actually ran for Congress in 1960, the year “The Best Man” was first produced on Broadway.  For a picturesof Gore greeting JFK when the latter attended a performance as President-elect, click here.  According to historian Michael Bechloss, Kennedy “blinked nervously at the references to Russell’s infidelities, which he (correctly) presumed to be based on his own.”