CLINT EASTWOOD AND EMPTY CHAIRS AT THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION..LIKE WATCHING MY FATHER TALK ABOUT POLITICS
By now everyone has seen the experimental performance art piece that was Clint Eastwood at the Republican convention and if for some reason you have not here is a link to just 12 minutes of what comedians are calling a true gift from the comedy gods. As I sat there taking it all in I kept thinking how much John Stewart and The Daily Show were going to make fun of it all. But then it slowly began to sink in to me as I watched that this wasn't just Clint Eastwood up there but also a representation of my 79 year old father as he tries to articulate to me (a gay male) why he continues to vote the straight party line regardless of the candidates they put forward and why he doesn't like Obama. It was sometimes funny, sad, awkward, rambling, nonsensical head scratching died in the wool support for the grand 'ol party no matter how many rights they would eventually take away from folks like me.
Don't get me wrong, I love my father, yes everyone says that before they something mean about somebody, kind of like in the South where it's fine to diss someone as long you as you say, bless their heart after it---"Why that dress makes her look big as a house, bless her heart." But for dad I have always bemused as why he just votes for whatever Republican they through up there, including the ones in North Carolina where he lives. I don't think I can even begin to get into why he continually voted for Jesse Helms year after in his grudgingly curmudgeonly ways. He always said Helms was good for the economy of North Carolina and always helped the tobacco farmers. Of course I'm like, dad, your not a farmer, you're an accountant and secondly you don't even like cigarette smoke, you complain every time you smell it. But it didn't matter. Even after I came out to him in the early 80's and he continued to support someone who was outwardly and openly hostile to any gays and lesbians and did everything in his power to marginalize and eradicate us. I say this as someone who spent my formative years growing up in NC to see and also 7 years in DC to see it also. The man was a true politician in all senses of the word and he's what most people despise in career politicians. I remember the day he finally gave up serving--it was like every holiday rolled into one and gays and lesbians everywhere celebrated joyously.
Usually me and pops will just avoid talking about politics and social issues as we will probably never agree on most things. People sometimes thing the South is full of Democrats but it is not really anymore. Most have migrated North and West and the South is now the hotbed of conservatives with small pockets of liberalism here and there, usually surrounding a college town. Whenever I would call dad we stuck to general topics like the weather, what was going on with family, how the local college sports teams were doing and what new health ailment he thought he was having that week. (Hypochondria was a characteristic on his side of the family) While he knew I was gay it took years, nee, decades before he ever asked if I was seeing anyone and once I was met the SO he eventually did start asking how he was, by name, and showing some interest, which I guess for him is coming along way. Though it's really more a matter of me wearing him down and getting him used to me being who I am--but god was it exhausting. It's why I could never be an activist, I just don't have the mental energy to keep at it that relentlessly--so good for them--I just need to lay down on the couch for a bit.
But getting back to Clint, I'm not surprised that he is Republican, as some folks seem to be, I mean have they not seen "Dirty Harry"? He's always reminded me of a Charleton Heston type---NRA carrying fan of Reagan kind of guy. I'm sure when the Republicans asked him to speak and he said yes, they were ecstatic, we got Clint! This will be great! After his speech I'm not so sure the enthusiasm is still there, as of now his speech has been scrubbed from Romney's RNC video compilation. Clint turned out to be what everyone thinks of when they think of the Republican Party, a bunch of doddering old white men with too much money and point fingers as mysterious things they don't understand and try to rationalize their choices with a bunch of incoherent arguments and bits of info they gleaned from FOX News. Cranky, crazy old men who shout at empty chairs--I can get that on most any street corner in downtown San Francisco, I don't need to see it on television. Hooray for the RNC, however, for putting out there everything and everyone their party stands for and symbolizes in what all will remember and talk about as the best (or worst or funniest) 12 minute convention speech ever.
Don't get me wrong, I love my father, yes everyone says that before they something mean about somebody, kind of like in the South where it's fine to diss someone as long you as you say, bless their heart after it---"Why that dress makes her look big as a house, bless her heart." But for dad I have always bemused as why he just votes for whatever Republican they through up there, including the ones in North Carolina where he lives. I don't think I can even begin to get into why he continually voted for Jesse Helms year after in his grudgingly curmudgeonly ways. He always said Helms was good for the economy of North Carolina and always helped the tobacco farmers. Of course I'm like, dad, your not a farmer, you're an accountant and secondly you don't even like cigarette smoke, you complain every time you smell it. But it didn't matter. Even after I came out to him in the early 80's and he continued to support someone who was outwardly and openly hostile to any gays and lesbians and did everything in his power to marginalize and eradicate us. I say this as someone who spent my formative years growing up in NC to see and also 7 years in DC to see it also. The man was a true politician in all senses of the word and he's what most people despise in career politicians. I remember the day he finally gave up serving--it was like every holiday rolled into one and gays and lesbians everywhere celebrated joyously.
Usually me and pops will just avoid talking about politics and social issues as we will probably never agree on most things. People sometimes thing the South is full of Democrats but it is not really anymore. Most have migrated North and West and the South is now the hotbed of conservatives with small pockets of liberalism here and there, usually surrounding a college town. Whenever I would call dad we stuck to general topics like the weather, what was going on with family, how the local college sports teams were doing and what new health ailment he thought he was having that week. (Hypochondria was a characteristic on his side of the family) While he knew I was gay it took years, nee, decades before he ever asked if I was seeing anyone and once I was met the SO he eventually did start asking how he was, by name, and showing some interest, which I guess for him is coming along way. Though it's really more a matter of me wearing him down and getting him used to me being who I am--but god was it exhausting. It's why I could never be an activist, I just don't have the mental energy to keep at it that relentlessly--so good for them--I just need to lay down on the couch for a bit.
But getting back to Clint, I'm not surprised that he is Republican, as some folks seem to be, I mean have they not seen "Dirty Harry"? He's always reminded me of a Charleton Heston type---NRA carrying fan of Reagan kind of guy. I'm sure when the Republicans asked him to speak and he said yes, they were ecstatic, we got Clint! This will be great! After his speech I'm not so sure the enthusiasm is still there, as of now his speech has been scrubbed from Romney's RNC video compilation. Clint turned out to be what everyone thinks of when they think of the Republican Party, a bunch of doddering old white men with too much money and point fingers as mysterious things they don't understand and try to rationalize their choices with a bunch of incoherent arguments and bits of info they gleaned from FOX News. Cranky, crazy old men who shout at empty chairs--I can get that on most any street corner in downtown San Francisco, I don't need to see it on television. Hooray for the RNC, however, for putting out there everything and everyone their party stands for and symbolizes in what all will remember and talk about as the best (or worst or funniest) 12 minute convention speech ever.
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