Clint Eastwood's empty chair a perfect metaphor for the 2012 GOP
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2012 at 10:09 AM
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Here was an old, often incoherent and unmistakably contemptuous white guy slowly lecturing an empty chair about all of its shortcomings.
There was something Shakespearean about it, with Eastwood looking like old King Lear on the heath, because the 82 year old's bizarre speech had hard words for Democrats but only faint praise for Republicans.
(This was a trend by the way: at the RNC of 2012 Barack Obama was mentioned twice as often as Mitt Romney).
It began well. Eastwood, who had played an iconic tough guy in the early 1970's, appeared to roars of approval from the mostly white, mostly middle aged, crowd. But once he actually started talking their enthusiasm quickly plummeted.
Eastwood ordered the empty chair to get out of Afghanistan. 'I know you were against the war in Iraq, and that’s okay. But you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, 'Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?'
That line brought heavy applause but the Romney team winced, they have said their candidate wants to keep the troops there indefinitely. This is when things started seriously going wrong.
If I was a comedy writer for Saturday Night Live I would have seen this moment for it was rapidly becoming: tragicomic comedy gold. You can bet it will be all over The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and SNL by Sunday.
And I predict that empty chair will come back to haunt the GOP in November. Because it did something team Romney didn't want it to: it reminded the nation who was not there.
Blacks, Hispanics, Gays, Immigrants, Women and Young People. There is simply no room and no real welcome for them in the all-male Christian Brotherhood that is the GOP in 2012. There are only the true patriots versus the un-American now.
Oddly enough, looking at that empty chair, I also thought of John Lauber, the teenager at Cranbrook prep school that Romney once led a group of frat boys to attack as he cut his hair off with scissors. For a moment Lauber's ghost was sitting in that chair, being bullied by another malicious swaggering tough guy who was sure that the crowd was on his side.
It began as a joke but it ended by telling the truth, and it was nauseating.
62 Comments
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BishopSean | Sep 09, 2012, 02:52 PM EDT
Whether his presentation was funny or not would depend, I suppose, on whose ox was gored. I think Clint was not bemused so much as employing a Gestält psychology technique. I would like to respond respectfully to Sean Og's statement, "In most cases I do not believe in abortion but do I ahve the right to make that decision for someone else? No!" --What if someone--like President Obama--would say about Mauritania, Sudan, etc., "In most cased I do not believe in slavery but di I have the right to make that decision for someone else? No!" Would any educated person buy that argument? Regards
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seanomelb | Sep 05, 2012, 07:09 PM EDT
Briano you've got to get the chronology correct and what day did Obama take his table from the dumpster?? when he was a lawyer. I know 4 more years is a bitter pill for you to swallow,but do it with a little panache.
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BrianO | Sep 05, 2012, 02:33 PM EDT
Well seano, hows about American's incomes dropping by 4000 a year. Hows about the fake story of the Obama's struggles. It must have been tough to attend elitist private high schools, ivy league college, graduate school at harvard. it must have been hard to never have worked during your college years, never having a summer job, it must have been tough to get by on a lawyers income, later on a senators income, thank goodness michele had a 300,000 dollar position as the hospital liason. Thank goodness he struck it rich with his book deals and other investments that finally he can hope to survive. I like the tough love he practices with his brother George in the hut in Africa, I'm sure he is a shining example to george, he just has to pick himself out of the poverty he lives in on his own and someday they can do lunch. Maybe they could invite his aunt living in the south boston projects out to dinner.
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hollabackgurl | Sep 05, 2012, 09:45 AM EDT
California12 I see you're from the Paul Ryan School of the BIG LIE. The unemployment rate is 12.8 million. Only Clint Eastwood and you think its double that.
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california12 | Sep 05, 2012, 01:13 AM EDT
our unemployment rate is 23 million here in the U.S. !
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seanomelb | Sep 04, 2012, 07:31 PM EDT
We cannot indulge in maybes Briano. Obama was left a mess and the greatest financial disaster in 70 years. He saved millions from job losses through the bail out. BTW the unemployment figure was not 5% when he took office. In fact it was over 8% in Jan 2008 and rising.
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barbbq1 | Sep 04, 2012, 02:20 PM EDT
In the early 90's when my kids graduated college they had huge debts and no jobs..the republicans would blame President Obama for that to!
My hubby was also laced off from his educational job because of fiscal constraints after 29 years..IN 1991 Could that be The present Presidents fault..
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california12 | Sep 04, 2012, 02:17 PM EDT
guess you told me 'hollaback gurl ' ! I have been a democrate all my life . Why all the anger ? 12 vs 28 ...still alot of people without jobs ! Try to be civil to others !
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hollabackgurl | Sep 04, 2012, 01:53 PM EDT
It's actually 12 million unemployed. The fact that you don't know that underlines why you vote Republican.
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california12 | Sep 04, 2012, 01:44 PM EDT
28 million unemployed !! 2 million in California ! We need someone wth a business background ! I voted for obama , like him as a person , but need to make a change ! Our kids are coming out of college with huge debt and no jobs !
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BrianO | Sep 04, 2012, 12:37 PM EDT
seano are those gross jobs or net jobs? Are these jobs paying the same, more, or less than the jobs lost in the last four years? Is the unemployment rat 5.3 to 5.0 where it should be? Do these statistics include the jobs that would have been lost if obama wasn't elected?
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culchiewoman | Sep 04, 2012, 12:16 PM EDT
Frankly, I think the RNP should be charged with elder abuse for allowing poor Clint to go through with this unscripted farce. It wasn't funny, it wasn't original (as anyone who's taken an acting class featuring the "empty chair monologue" can tell you) and it was painful to watch. And lest we forget, all of this was coming from a man who has fathered 7 children with different women, forced one of them to have an abortion, and considers himself in favour of same-sex marriage. Family values guy? Meh...I think not. Perhaps it was really a subversive act on Eastwood's part to discredit and destroy the RNP? Maybe he's really *not* a Republican...? I think Jon Stewart was correct in saying that the RNP really does see an imaginary, invisible Obama quite different than the one the rest of us see in reality.
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whiteycat | Sep 04, 2012, 11:07 AM EDT
I didnot see any of this articles views in the empty chair metaphor. I think if anytrhing it showed that obamas chair in the WH is usually vacant.
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seanomelb | Sep 04, 2012, 05:32 AM EDT
$.5 Million jobs created in the last four years Briano one has to go back to Clinton era match (or better) those figures.
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