[lbo-talk] Carville picks up the "narrative" idea

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Nov 9 11:54:34 PST 2004


Michael Dawson:
> They also value the appearance of personal honesty. Despite his Satanic
> dishonesty, Bush projects the image of simply fighting hard for what he
> honestly believes, even if he has to tell a few fibs to make it happen.
The
> DP hasn't had that image since at least early Carter, before he was
devoured
> by Brzezinski and the DP establishment, or perhaps ever.

True. When Bush went hunting, we saw a man who went out to kill something to eat. When Kerry went hunting, we saw an English gentleman out for an afternoon of sport, complete with servants to carry the game home. The fakeness of that photo-op probably cost him more votes than the swift boat blitz.

I think, btw, that there is something about the American collective psyche that feels an undying attraction to this kind of "wild west" stuff - which foreign observers, like myself, view with a mixture of bemusement and disbelief. I mean, most folks who populate this country have their ancestry roots in the factories of New York, Baltimore and Chicago and coal mines of Pennsylvania. Only a small handful of them were cowboys. So if they are yearning for their roots, they should identify with workers and union organizers, not cowboys. This whole pioneer/wild west thing is 100% made in Hollywood. I find it hard to understand why it has such a strong attraction.

Wojtek



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