Will we rise up as one America? Or will we reward the so-called “winners” in our capitalist-like system with exemption from taxes and other responsibilities to society?
It’s what’s on the line in the 2012 election, and why Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl ad had conservatives so easily worked up after being blindsided at halftime. While Rush Limbaugh was busy picking his nose, I image Grover Norquist spilled his beer, panicked, as he looked for his cordless phone, scrambling to get Anger Radio prepared for a coordinated response overnight. We know this to be the case because Karl Rove was ready and appropriately outraged.
Mr. Eastwood’s ad-in which he deems us to be at “Halftime in America”-invokes the ideals that brought rugged Americans TOGETHER for Independence, to win wars, and overcome adversity. The idea that America took a risk on a proud institution-its auto industry-with our own tax money and revived a supposedly failing brand is exactly what is supposed to be wrong with “Obama’s policies.” Not only that, the companies are now thriving, and have paid back the Americans that saved them. The idea that we can pull up our fallen brothers and sisters who hit hard times, and ultimately do better together, is the idea that they seek to crush.
Why? Because ever since Barack Obama became President, the Ayn Rand-inspired, so-called tea party types took hold in the Republican Party under the ideology that we are all on our own, and that its somehow un-American to pool resources to accomplish shared goals without someone looking to get ahead. Rand’s books idealize selfishness, while demeaning the notion of helping a stranger that offers nothing to you. In the battle royal of life, she might say, only the strong survive, and the fruits of their labor ought not be taken or shared with others. Even charity is a vice, as it takes away the incentive to get ahead no matter the means. If the rest can’t keep up, well, they’re failures and deserve what they get. Don’t bother picking up the fallen, they’re just mooching off of your strength.
This clash of themes-strict selfishness versus togetherness-will be struggle underlying the entire 2012 Presidential election cycle. Yet it isn’t new to U.S. politics. I was recently watching Robert Redford’s The Candidate, in which incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Crocker Jarmon delivers a tirade against “a collectivist state.” Of course, by the end the cranky old “I got mine” incumbent loses to the young idealistic liberal (who tones it down to win, sadly) but that’s just Hollywood.
To have a Republican tough guy like Eastwood remind us that “country first” means we look out for each other and that we can all move forward quicker when we’re all on our feet together (I call this the “Mosh Pit” progress theory) is a real punch in the gut to the Ayn Randians who want us all fighting against each other to get to the finish line.
Invoking Detroit to make this point is specially frightening for Team Rand, because their presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, urged America to “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” in the New York Times a few years ago. This pessimism was ideologically pure and exactly what they think is supposed to happen. I’m sure they know that it’s not very inspiring for America filled with people who still prefer that some things be “American Made."
In fact, many Americans are leaning on friends, family, and strangers more so than they ever have before. Young voters aren’t buying the idea that we all must be pitted against each other like beasts in an arena. The Occupy Wall Street movement seems to have pushed them even CLOSER together to get through tough times.
Obama’s theme will be that America is “Greater Together.” Mr. Eastwood seems to agree, and that’s why this spot was the first ad of the 2012 general election.
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