I can't speak for Joanna, but how long a political conversation could you have with a birther?
..........
I can answer this question with precision: two hours.
I know this because, as it happens, I devoted two hours of my eternally lost yesterday to an old friend and colleague who has become something of a birther.
It was an interesting conversation -- a kind of slalom course through the real and the unreal. My friend -- let's call him Kratos -- knew that I wasn't an Obama enthusiast. And so, despite my awesomely sexy mocha-ness (which, presumably, meant instant and lasting Obama-love), he assumed I'd be at least partially on board with the sort of 'questions' he wanted answers to.
Questions such as:
* Is he really a citizen?
* Why does Michelle hate America?
* Why did he bow to a "towel head"? (Asked, because Americans "bow to no one"...except Asians to be polite and get with a 'when in Rome' social nicety. Seriously, this distinction was made: bowing to Arabs = bad. Bowing to Japanese, Koreans and others with the custom is cool and polite.)
* How dare he release anyone from Gitmo? Didn't he listen to Dubya describe these monsters as being "the worst of the worst"? (But, as an aside, Dubya was stupid and a disgrace to conservatives but never mind that those guys are all super villains!)
* Most importantly: who's pulling the strings behind the scenes?!
This was a lot to tackle in one sitting. I decided to keep things direct and relevant by focusing on concrete issues such as the financial sector friendly architecture of the administration's recovery efforts.
Nods of agreement; yes, the banks were on the ropes and should have been brought to heel. Harmony. Tranquility. But then, the supposedly dodgy birth certificate rises from its shallow, rhetorical grave, like a reanimated zombie.
Again, I try to focus on the known knowns: the escalation (and sloppy escalation at that) of US banging about in the Afghan/Pakistan region.
Nods of agreement; yes, the people who supported the President expecting a de-escalation fooled themselves. Nice. But then, Michelle's alleged "hatred" of this great land sits down at our table, hogging all the ketchup and farting with abandon.
Once again, I try to bring the conversation back to life on Earth and away from the proceedings on Barsoom. Not enough has been done, I state, to encourage new sectors of economic activity in the US -- to shepherded a 21st century Keynesianism built on post carbon tech and other necessary stuff.
Oh, sweet agreement! She sat in our laps and kissed us both on the cheek...simultaneously. Yes, Kratos agreed, we need a re-industrialization program but one suited for the requirements of the present and future (i.e., all the groovy green jobs stuff the President loves to chatter about).
But alas, quick on the heels of that came outraged musings on Michelle's extravagance and "hidden agenda".
This dizzying thematic combination, the embrace of the actual and the romance novel-esque was intriguing. As we parted company, I formed a quick theory: it's much more *exciting* to believe that 'secret knowledge' obtained via right-wing websites is true. It's much more exciting than the very mundane fact that the President helped his Wall Street backers and is a run of the mill American militarist. Among other wonkish facts.
The birther/secret agenda/Michelle hates America/who's pulling the strings construct not only feeds on and into a vortex of racial anxiety, it's also -- and perhaps more importantly -- an example of enjoyment (maybe in the Lacanian sense? Not sure. Some of you quarrelsome philosophes can knock that about).
It's as if you've become an underground freedom fighter or a Mayberry James Bond -- you have information about the mechanisms producing modernity's en-fuckedness.
The other way, the lefty way of going through the charts and facts and pushing, pulling history of things (particularly of the national myth busting variety) cannot hope to compete with this massive, crowd-scripted reality television program.
.d.
"What fresh hell is this?"
Hank Moody