Republicans Jumping the Proverbial Shark

 
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The Clint Eastwood debacle is turning into one of those cultural moments of convergence when even the most tuned-out voter realizes that something has changed and we've taken a step into Bizarro World. Clint's "chair improv" moment is even listed now on Wikipedia's Jumping the Shark Page.

The phrase "jumping the shark," comes from a ridiculous episode in the series Happy Days when "The Fonz" (Henry Winkler) put on swim trunks and went water skiing wearing a black leather jacket. That scene managed to turn the coolest character on TV into a silly wimp pretending to be in danger.

 In Clint's case, we were forced as a mass audience to watch his weird self-indulgent parody of imaginary Obama as a foul-mouthed brutha from the ghett-o, which is every tea partier's stereotype and nightmare as described by Rush Limbaugh - the "community organizer" from "thuggish Chicago" who is actually a "Kenyan" and who needs to "get out of the White House" because he's not a "real American." The only thing Clint could have said to make it a perfect ten would be to pout and tell Obama-Chair belligerantly: "I want my country back."

Instead, we have to settle for one of the greatest living actors on stage drawing a finger across his throat while saying "We Gotta Let Him Go." The fact that Clint was lynched in more than one of his movies (Hang 'em High and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) doesn't help matters because it just means he knows exactly what racist reference he is possibly making to his wingnut audience.


via gifsfln.com
Here's the description of where the phrase "Jump the Shark" from the LA Times

In 1987, Jon Hein and his roommates at the University of Michigan were drinking beer and had Nick at Nite playing in the background. They started talking about classic TV shows when someone asked, "What was the precise moment you knew it was downhill for your favorite show?" One said it was when Vicki came on board "The Love Boat." Another thought it was when the Great Gazoo appeared on "The Flintstones." Sean Connolly offered, "That's easy: It was when Fonzie jumped the shark." As Hein later recounted, there was silence in the room: "No explanation necessary, the phrase said it all."
Thus was born an expression that would quickly make its way into the pop culture mainstream, defined by Hein as "a moment. A defining moment when you know from now on … it's all downhill … it will never be the same."

To connect this to politics, I think the Republican Party members believe they are in a never-ending series like . . . let's say . . . Gunsmoke - all tough and macho and frontiersy, beginning and ending with a shoot-out Ted Nugent style.

But in reality, the Republican Party is more like All in the Family on steroids, or worse - the ever-conventional and color-coordinated (white mostly) Brady Bunch when Vincent Price trapped the boys in a cave in Hawaii because of an evil Tiki idol that put a curse on them. I think Joe Arpaio and his Arizona pals would understand this - he sent his minions there to get the real scoop on Obama's birth certificate, and what happened? The Feds started investigating him for hate crimes. Must be the curse of Hawaii once more. Or maybe the Republican Party just jumped too many sharks on the way to Hawaii and birtherism, period.



Kooky and Creepy Old Guest Star Vincent Price

(Sorry, I couldn't resist throwing in Hawaii because even the youngest Brady knew that they were still in the good old United States. What do Republicans think the name "Hawaii 5-0" means anyway?)

Or maybe Mad Men has it right - Don Draper's wife Betty ran off with a successful politician, but instead of her life becoming more modern, they end up living in the House of Dark Shadows with a weird old grandma out of The Addams Family. I think there's definitely a parallel there to the American Gothic negativity of the modern GOP, with their bag full of dusty torture devices and their witch hunts.

Another parallel to Mad Men is the fact that a very conventional British character Lane - the "Anglo-Saxon" character - kept lying to people about his money situation until finally his only way out was to hang himself at the office. That somehow seems familiar this year, since Mitt Romney has been unwilling to release his tax records or tell the truth about his real connections to Bain Capital. And every time he or his wife open their mouths about it, the noose tightens more.

I would compare the Repubs to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so convinced are they that life in the U.S. has become a Hellmouth under Obama, with the Apocalypse just around the corner. The only problem is that they would deny that a woman, or even an army of women, could save the world. The only women superheroes in their world are the Moms, especially the wealthy homeschooler Moms, or conversely the bleach-blonde bitches on Fox News, plus Condileeza Rice, the warmongering Amazon. Even the fact that Buffy wore a cross and carried around holy water while killing vampires and satanic demons wouldn't matter to the GOP. Also, while Buffy was a rather silly show at times, it never jumped the shark, and had one of the best final episodes of any series in history. Something tells me the Republicans aren't going to have a happy ending.


Buffy is too much like Sandra Fluke anyway - you know, young, opinionated, intelligent and female, with lady parts that she controls - and is therefore a slut and probably popping birth control pills like pez. Don't even get me started on Buffy's friends, the Wiccan Lesbians in the series - they don't exist in GOP Land. Let the shark eat them. "Let them go."

I'm sure the day after Clint Eastwood made that speech, many Republicans all over the country woke up wondering if it had been a dream - like the time everyone thought Bobby Ewing was dead on Dallas, but then he stepped out of the shower alive and well. I know they don't like the word "HOPE" but that's really what they wanted to gain from the GOP Convention. They wanted to wake up in a place like Dallas where there's plenty of money and people who will vote exactly as they do and Obama isn't going to be President anymore after November. They wanted a big bounce, and a big lead.

Except that this is reality TV, and Clint Eastwood steered his speedboat through the middle of the Convention Center and ran his own embarassing wrinkly shorts up the main mast for all to see, while mumbling crazy talk to an empty chair. It was much more of an Evel Knievel show-stopper than anything Fonzie ever did on Happy Days, and its effect on society - Priceless, and not good news for Mitt Romney. Too bad it didn't happen during Shark Week.

Romney Warsaw Speech: "Pulaski" a Ku Klux Klan Dog Whistle?

I debated whether to write this down, but after reading Mitt Romney's Warsaw speech several times, a possible racist dog whistle jumped out at me. I do not know if this was intentional or unintentional, but I bring it up since everyone from Cokie Roberts to Chris Matthews has mentioned that Romney is trying to get the white Polish American vote in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

But my theory now is that the goal is bigger than that -- What if he is trying to seal the deal not just with European ethnic groups, but with all the white supremicist voters in the United States? After all, he has to have them to win because he's alienated so many other groups in the country, such as Hispanics.

I'm talking specifically about all those people who hate Barack Obama just because he is African American, the ones outraged that he was ever elected President in the first place, the birthers who view him as "foreign" or un-American - as Romney spokesman John Sununu was blabbing about a few weeks ago.

Sometimes for the racist factions, "European" is as much a dog whistle as "Anglo-Saxon," which Romney threw out in a statement just last week before his London debacle.

And NOTE: I realize there are lots of other places called Pulaski in many states. I'm discussing just one in particular. Stay with me here, and follow Romney's own words . . .

Let's look at what Romney said, then study some history:

I, and my fellow Americans, are inspired by the path of freedom tread by the people of Poland. Long before modern times, of course, the Polish and American people were hardly strangers. The name "Pulaski" is honored to this day in America, and so is the memory of other Poles who joined in our fight for independence.

Complete Text of Speech Here

The "fight for independence" is a reference to the Revolutionary War, correct? That could just be a shout out to the "Patriot" movement connected to the Tea Party, but there's more . . .

Who is he talking about specifically? Who is the person called "Pulaski" who helped us in our fight for "independence" from the British?

Here's the answer: Casimir Pulaski, native of Warsaw, who fought with George Washington.


From the Polish American Center

Casimir Pulaski, son of Count Joseph Pulaski, was born in Warsaw, Poland, on March 6, 1745. At the age of fifteen, he joined his father and other members of the Polish nobility in opposing the Russian and Prussian interference in Polish affairs. Outlawed by Russia for his actions on behalf of Polish liberty, he traveled to Paris where he met Benjamin Franklin, who induced him to support the colonies against England in the American Revolution. Pulaski, impressed with the ideals of a new nation struggling to be free, volunteered his services. Franklin wrote to George Washington describing the young Pole as "an officer renowned throughout Europe for the courage and bravery he displayed in defense of his country's freedom."

In 1777, Pulaski arrived in Philadelphia where he met General Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Later, at Brandywine, he came to the aid of Washington's forces and distinguished himself as a brilliant military tactician. For his efforts, Congress appointed him Brigadier-General in charge of Four Horse Brigades. Then again, at the Battle of Germantown, Pulaski's knowledge of warfare assisted General Washington and his men in securing victory for American forces.

All well and good - he was a Revolutionary War hero. Nice.

But here's the Dog Whistle part: there's a town named precisely for Casimir Pulaski here in my home state of Tennessee.

Pulaski, Tennessee, in Giles County.

But beyond the European/Polish/Revolutionary War connection, what is is Pulaski, Tennessee, MOST famous for? Do you know? Well, here's the dog whistle part: Pulaski is where the Ku Klux Klan was founded.

From PBS, Jim Crow Stories

The Ku Klux Klan was originally organized in the winter of 1865-66 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a social club by six Confederate veterans. In the beginning, the Klan was a secret fraternity club rather than a terrorist organization. (Ku Klux was derived from the Greek "kuklos," meaning circle, and the English word clan.) The costume adopted by its members (disguises were quite common) was a mask and white robe and high conical pointed hat.

According to the founders of the Klan, it had no malicious intent in the beginning. The Klan grew quickly and became a terrorist organization. It attracted former Civil War generals such as Nathan Bedford Forrest, the famed cavalry commander whose soldiers murdered captured black troops at Fort Pillow.

The Klan spread beyond Tennessee to every state in the South and included mayors, judges, and sheriffs as well as common criminals. The Klan systematically murdered black politicians and political leaders. It beat, whipped, and murdered thousands, and intimidated tens of thousands of others from voting. Blacks often tried to fight back, but they were outnumbered and out gunned. While the main targets of Klan wrath were the political and social leaders of the black community, blacks could be murdered for almost any reason. Men, women, children, aged and crippled, were victims.

The Klan occasionally still marches in Pulaski, although most of the locals aren't happy about it.

Klan Rally in Pulaski, TN, 2009


The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Pulaski the "white supremicist epicenter of the nation" in this article about a Klan march there back in 2010:

Racist Event in Pulaski

Although it’s a small town of about 7,800, Pulaski, Tenn. may well be the white supremacist epicenter of the nation — at least if the number of rallies held there by bigoted groups is any indication.

The mayor and other residents aren’t pleased. “There’s never been a local person involved in these marches or rallies,” Mayor Daniel Speer told Hatewatch this week. But they’re resigned to being a favorite locale for the haters on the American radical right. Speer’s town is more than one-quarter black, but it has for decades been a favorite place for white supremacist groups to rally because of one unfortunate historical fact: This was where the Ku Klux Klan was born.

“It’s a great place to come and learn about the heritage of European Americans,” the festival’s website says. The site includes links to racist individuals and groups including David Duke, who founded Robb’s Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1975; the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that has described black people as a “retrograde species of humanity” and opposes “race mixing”; and The Barnes Review, the leading American journal devoted to denying the Holocaust.

The European Heritage Festival follows by three months a “White Unity Day March and Rally” in Pulaski conducted by the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations. A year earlier, in July 2009, the Fraternal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan staged a birthday march in Pulaski for their hero, Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. There have been many other Klan rallies in Pulaski over the decades.

. . . “It’s frustrating,” the mayor says. “[We’re associated with] the Klan. It’s a stigma. Unfortunately, I just don’t see it going away.”

"A great place to . . . learn about the heritage of European Americans." Yep - just like Casimir Pulaski, the guy referred to in Mitt Romney's Warsaw speech.

More Here: Southern Poverty Law Center and Hate Watch

NOTE: I do NOT in any way, shape, or form mean to insult anyone named "Pulaski" or any Polish Americans, nor anyone living in present-day Pulaski, Tennessee. My goal is just to point out that Mitt Romney may have made a racist reference in his Warsaw speech, whether intentional or unintentional. If it is unintentional, then he really needs a new speechwriter because it is unbelievable that they would let the candidate unintentionally invoke the history of Pulaski, TN, in the United States.

If it is intentional, then Romney is just as cynical and cut-throat as everyone thinks, since he also quoted Condileeza Rice and Pope John Paul II, who make strange bedfellows with the Klan. My feeling is that his political team will do or say anything to win, and that's why this speech is a jumbled word salad aimed not at Europe, but at the Tea Party and even the Aryan Nations in the U.S. He is name-dropping this and that to get the couple hundred thousand votes he needs to win, ironically along with the help from the new Jim Crow-style laws in the swing states. Does this sound strange? Well, stranger things have happened - remember the election of 2000?

I'm only talking here about the way that reference might be taken by certain factions, and given the fact that Romney needs the Southern White or Midwestern White vote to win this election, this is a fair topic. I don't seek to insult anyone or any place either, but history is history, and considering how many borderline racist comments Mitt Romney has made in the past few months, let alone the past few days with the Israel/Palestine comparison, I'm just throwing this out there . . .

Romney Flubs His British Invasion

I have been enjoying the heck out of Romney's British Invasion so far, even before he landed in the country. One (or possibly two) of his surrogates went nuts yesterday and told the British tabloid Telegraph UK a few bizarre things about what Romney wants from British relations, including several racist dog whistles about how Romney is "more Anglo Saxon" than Barack Obama, who "hates NATO." You can't make this stuff up.

Updates on this ever-evolving story from Think Progress

UPDATE: Romney doesn't dispute Telegraph's "Anglo-Saxon" report, says "I dont agree with whoever that advisor might be" thkpr.gs/PgzcpP

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) July 25, 2012

UPDATE: The Romney campaign has not requested that The Telegraph update or retract their "Anglo-Saxon" story thkpr.gs/PgzcpP

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) July 25, 2012

More humor, quotes and tweets on Snark Amendment
Mitt Goes Brit (Anglo-Saxon, That Is)
Mitt's Epic Anglo-Saxon Fail
Romney Dog Whistles: Foreign, Anglo-Saxon, Atlanticist

Original Article in the Telegraph UK

We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.
. . . Obama is a Left-winger," said another. "He doesn’t value the Nato alliance as much, he’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory'.”
. . . He is naturally more Atlanticist.

Comment by Vice President Joe Biden

Despite his promises that politics stops at the water's edge, Gov. Romney's wheels hadn't even touched down in London before his advisers were reportedly playing politics with international diplomacy.
. . . The comments reported this morning are a disturbing start to a trip designed to demonstrate Gov. Romney’s readiness to represent the United States on the world’s stage. Not surprisingly, this is just another feeble attempt by the Romney campaign to score political points at the expense of this critical partnership. This assertion is beneath a presidential campaign.

Romney spokesman Ryan Williams quoted in the LA Times: The Vice President of the United States used an anonymous and false quote from a foreign newspaper to prop up their flailing campaign. We have very serious problems confronting our nation and American families are hurting, yet the Obama campaign continues to try to divert voters' attention with specious shiny objects. We have more faith in American voters, and know they will see this latest desperate ploy for what it is.

Obama Spokesperson Jen Psaki: One of his advisers violated exactly what they said they wouldn't do which is criticize the president beyond the borders of the U.S.
This is a case where there is a continuous fumbling of the foreign policy football here, and it does raise a question as to whether Mitt Romney and his team are ready to have serious conversation about a foreign policy

Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg in a statement to ABC News: It's not true. If anyone said that, they weren't reflecting the views of Gov. Romney or anyone inside the campaign.