When Clint Eastwood Mocks You, You're Officially Screwed [View all]

(Photo: Lars Kristian Flem; Edited: LP / Truthout)

When Clint Eastwood Mocks You, You're Officially Screwed
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Friday 10 February 2012

I ain't happy
I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine
In a bag
I'm useless
But not for long
The future
Is coming on...

- Gorillaz, "Clint Eastwood"

You know the wheels have come off the GOP wagon when the Republicans feel compelled to accuse Clint Eastwood of being a shill for the president, but that is precisely what has transpired. Eastwood, who is nobody's Democrat by any stretch of the imagination, starred in a stirring Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler about the resurgence of Detroit's auto industry that was, in essence, a gravel-voiced pep talk for all of America. Speaking personally, the commercial made me want to run full-tilt through a stone wall...and then buy a Chrysler, which is quite a confession, as I pride myself on being utterly immune to advertising.

Reaction from the Republican Right was both swift and hilarious. Apparently, and according to the GOP, Dirty Harry is a dirty liberal hippy socialist communist who hates America and is in the pocket of our birthplace-questionable president...but the GOP found itself struggling to be coherent in its critique.

Take, as the prime example, the words of Karl Rove, who appeared on Fox News to denounce the ad. "I was frankly offended by it," said Rove. "I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising, and the, and the, and the best wishes of the management, which is benefitted by getting a bunch of our money that they'll never pay back."

Far be it from me to belabor a point, but these threads are worth plucking apart a bit.

"...when you have Chicago-style politics..." The Right has been deploying this particular slice of invective against Mr. Obama since the '08 campaign, to little effect. It might have had some impact, Mr. Rove, if your party hadn't spent the last three decades rampaging through the infrastructure of public education in all its forms; had you not done so, the people you're trying to convince might actually get the reference you're throwing out...but then again, by gutting public education in America, you might have spared yourself from grief, as under-educated voters won't say to you, "Um, the 'Mayor Daley' who cracked heads and enforced total obedience in Chicago has been gone for 40 years, you dimwit."

"... using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising..." Heh. Sounds like the entire "Defense" industry to me...remember when NBC and MSNBC became full-on shills for the Iraq war? I do.

"...the best wishes of the management..." So, you're telling me the GOP isn't on the side of management all of a sudden? I'll be sure to alert the Chamber of Commerce that you're on the side of the 99% now. I'm sure they'll enjoy the news.

"...which is benefitted by getting a bunch of our money that they'll never pay back..." Oh for the luvva crumbcake, Karl, the president you whored for gave us the TARP bailout to the tune of $700 billion, and the airline bailout...and oh yeah, wasn't another cerebrally-impaired Bush offspring centrally implicated in the S&L bailout that exploded the 1990 recession, which helped lead to the un-re-electability of Bush Sr. way back when?

You crack me up, Karl. Some of us remember.

P.S., the Detroit bailout worked, which is what pisses you off...that, and the fact that you and your ilk can't admit it when you're wrong. Detroit lives, you hate it, and all your tantrum will accomplish is to paint Michigan a bright, vivid Blue in November of 2012. Congratulations, genius.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/when-clint-eastwood-mocks-you-youre-officially-screwed/1328840046