> ron was a master at conveying the B movie hollywood ending; he
> convinced
> americans tired of dealing with grown up problems that things were just
> fine, america was perfect, and they could all go back to sleep because
> the
> good hands people were in charge of their destiny. talk about a
> retreat
> into childhood -- not to mention senility.
For the whole eight long -- looooooong -- years of his reign, I was constantly mystified by the adulation showered on that sucker by (it seemed) nearly the entire country. It was as though he had cast a spell (something out of Lord of the Rings?) on everyone. Even those who disagreed with him politically praised him to the skies as "the Master Communicator" and good old buddy of all creatures great and small, whereas I could only regard him as an old fart with an absolutely hideous politics and a really perverse mean streak towards "welfare Cadillac queens" and such.
A good deal of that mystical spell was recycled, of course, this last week, and it may rub off to some extent on Shrub, though I think the Ronnie adulators will probably contrast el W very unfavorably, as a feel-good prexy, with his predecessor.
Somehow, he apparently managed to personify something the populace was yearning for. The ideal grand-pop? I've never figured it out, but if anyone could pin it down, it would certainly give us a great deal of insight into the American psyche, at least the psyche of that period.
Clearly, Shrub has been trying to fit into the same role, and was striving with might and main at this task even before RR's demise. The retiring to the ranch in the West to clear brush, the attempt to project a common-man, folksy touch, etc. (BTW, I have always suspected that some private company was hired to truck in brush from time to time so that RR would have plenty to clear, and the same company has been providing this service for Shrub.) But he is far less skilled at playing this role than his role model, and furthermore, the times are different.
RR's reign took place in peacetime (as much as any period in the twentieth century could be called "peacetime" for the US), following a national trauma (the Iran hostage thing) which he apparently successfully resolved (the Iran-contra thing was ignored by just about everyone but us perverse lefties in our dark, moldy lairs, trying to flee from the bright daylight of "Morning in America"), whereas Shrub is trying to look like Grant on a horse fighting a noble war which, unfortunately for him, is turning more and more rotten on him by the day. (Those "Torture 'R' Us" memos just keep coming.) And he just doesn't have that twinkle in his eye that stood the Gipper in such good stead. Instead, he has the deer-in-the-headlights stare.
I can't wait to see the debates -- Shrub vs. the Great Stone Face. With the enmity that is building up between the two camps already, they might end up wrassling each other on the floor. It could well be a TV classic of the 21st century.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)