The "Vince Vaughn"ing of America

I loathe Vince Vaughn. OK. I don't know him. And when I saw him on The Daily Show he seemed like a decent guy.
But I loathe the Vince Vaughn persona. He's brought George W. Bush's phony "guy I'd like to get drunk with" character to the big screen. The "bad boy" who's such a guy's guy. The kind of guy the NASCAR guys want to hang with...the guys who treat women badly...isn't that adorable...and think they're tough guys because they've been to Vegas and played poker.
They're the "to the victors go the spoils" guys with the cigars. Cars, women, clothes.
Only, look below the surface, and these bad boys usually didn't earn the spoils.
Mommy and Daddy got them into their fancy schools...they leapfrogged over more worthy applicants who didn't have the connections.
Mommy and Daddy bankroll the lifestyle. Setting them up in businesses...then bailing them out when they fail.
Mommy and Daddy got them into the Guard and the expensive pilot training..paid for by taxpayers whose own kids couldn't even get on the waiting lists. Then, the Bad Boy "stood down" with two years of training left. Walked away.
This weeks Entertainment Weekly is about Vaughn's new movie "The Wedding Crashers". Fine. The entertainment industry employs hundreds of thousands of Americans. We need those jobs. And these days, who would begrudge someone sitting in a cool, dark theater for a couple of hours and enjoying themselves. Not me.
But when I read Vaughn arranged for a tour of The White House during filming, and Bush showed up to make one of his Guy's Guy witticisms, "Uh, summer come early this year, son?" to the director, wearing a T-shirt, I saw red. (OK, not as witty as "You're a real piece of work" to a foreign leader).
Go ahead and vote for the "guy's guy" with his fake machismo. And shrug off that along with your vote comes the evangelicals who are blurring the line between church and state. And who want to squash stem cell research and deny women choice. Pay no attention to how corporate America is trashing the environment.
You think your support of Bush makes you a real player. A bona fide Marlboro Man.
But let me tell you this. The real Bad Boys are not safe in America getting drunk and telling fart jokes. Many of them are sitting in the hot sun in Iraq. They know what a dead child looks like lying in bombed out rubble. And, yes, they chose to be in the military. They're no better than the young people here. And no worse.
And many of the authentic Bad Boys have the courage to protest this war. They're in the streets. They want to stop the madness.
But you, Vince Vaughn, are not one of them. You support the troops. You are not the troops. And you and George W. Bush are clueless. Your brand of machismo is manufactured. And false. Bush had his chance to find out the reality of war. And he walked away.
You strive to embody cool guy machismo. As long as you don't have to get your hands dirty. Leave the wet work to the hired help.
If you support Bush and his lying to the world, go to Iraq. Not for a photo opp. Sit in the hot sun for hours. Maintain heavy equipment which might malfunction. Watch for children, yes, children who might be carrying explosives. Now, what do you do? Kill a child? Not so funny anymore, is it?
Fight the boredom, tedium, and hopelessness. Wonder about your family. Your girlfriend. Your children.
And tell yourself that the dead bodies, our soldiers and Iraqi civilians, are "worth it".
I don't buy your brand of masculinity. I don't want a president who doesn't know history or geography and is proud of it. I don't want a president who isn't strong enough to stand in front of an audience that hasn't been carefully vetted and screened. I don't want a president who thinks stubbornness is leadership.
To me, your Bad Boy persona isn't adorable.
It's disgusting.
And when I see you on the "Wedding Crashers" posters, I don't think "what a cool guy."
I think, what a candyass.

Think "John Wayne".

wasn't as transparently fake.

For a while, John Wayne could fool you into thinking he was a cowboy or marine.

Bush never looks like more than a giggling frat boy eager to haze the pledges (us).

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

When Bruce Willis made that challenge of 'gimme just 5 minutes alone with Saddam Hussein (or was it Bin Laden?)' did he mean alone-alone or with his bodyguards nearby?

EDIT:

OOPS! Here's the actual quote during a performance before the troops a couple of years ago...

"If you catch him, just give me four seconds with Saddam Hussein"

FOUR SECONDS! Hmmm... I guess you can REALLY do some real damages in that lengthy interval. But I still stand by the with-or-without bodyguards question.

pure and simple

Fragile egos need lots of props to hold them up. If they spend more than 30 seconds looking into their own eyes in a mirror they dissolve into a pool of recriminatory tears.

He's just an actor...

it's like the OP is blaming everything on Vince Vaughn...

because someone else says so I was just agreeing with your post

his movies just sucked ass

But point well ta'en (I'm feeling archaic today)

;-)

And he DOES pretty much play the same caricature in every movie now. It's just a hokey, mediocre, macho guy's guy thing.

He's just a mediocre performer who has managed to parlay one role that fit him well ("T" in "Swingers") into an entire, mediocre, career that has nevertheless enriched him.

If he is in fact some kind of Repub it really wouldn't change my already lowish opinion of his acting. Kinda sad really. I LOVED Swingers and was really looking forward to stuff he did after, but unfortunately he appears to have expended his whole store of talent with that one movie, kinda like Stallone and the original "Rocky".

The fact that Bruce Willis is a Repub booster, as disappointing as it is to me, doesn't really detract from my admiration of his acting, or my enjoyment of his better movies, like "Unbreakable" and "Sixth Sense" or even the good popcorn stuff like "Die Hard."

I guess in some cases I'm able to separate my dislike of someone's politics from their entertainment.

I'm a guy who always disliked the "guys guy" you described. For me, they are SO BORING. Vince Vaughn is a big YAWN.

and way too long rant.
My son, a Marine in Iraq for his second tour, is facing the possibility of a third tour.
So...I'm a little sensitive to the whole Young Repub. poser guys who want to be thought of as such guy's guys. And who worship Dubya.
Bush is such a fake to me that people who idolize him make me crazy.
Really.
Crazy.

It's hard for us with glasses and reading disabilities.

I'm with you all the way.

CLINTON is the one that you could probably have a beer and a fun conversation (being well-read helps with that sort of thing). I've never seen him faking like he's one with the soil. Yet, LONNNNNNNNNG before Monica, he was constantly constantly constantly attacked for being a total phony. I could see it if, say, he was born and raised in Marthaville, CT and tried to pass himself off as some Little Rock hick (as is kinda the case with you-know-who).

* just comes of as Reggie-Mantle-meets-JR-Ewing.

Is he the one I saw hugging on Jennifer Anisten on a people/star/enquirer(?) cover at the super market? The name rings a bell but apparently I have never noticed him in a movie before.

am certain he's not in any movies I see

as macho. The chimp was a cheerleader in college and a draft dodger.
True John Wayne was a draft dodger too, but at least he played football at USC.

The chimp is no mans man, he is a pussy's pussy and a perfect role model for those who cheer on the war from their couch.

inhabit this snarky persona. See their comments in LBN after the London bombings. People are dying, let's see....how can I cash in? Or here's a cheap laugh, suggest France should have been attacked instead. Then make a comment about how these attacks are "good for us".
There's no depth. There's no soul. And we're not talking adolescents here. This "persona" is a guy in his thirties. (The Man Show. South Park. Colin Quinn. all variations on a theme. Rudeness is the same as wit.) And the Fox guys are middle-aged.
These guys really are the ugly Americans. And they're taking over.
(OK. OK. South Park is funny.)