Sen. Lindsey Graham (R. S.C.) is always good for a sound bite (though civil libertarians are still smarting from “free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war.”). Now Graham has identified the greatest threat to the GOP: the declining numbers of “angry white guys.”
Graham told the Washington Post that “The demographics race we’re losing badly. We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
It is not clear if this is a decline in white males alone or whether the demographic decline of whites (including white men) has been magnified by the decline in anger among white men. There is also the seasonal aspect of anger to fit into the calculation. For example, I tend to get very angry when the Chicago Bears play the Green Bay Packers. Indeed, if the calculation is based on raw anger levels instead of individual angry men, I could easily make up for reduced numbers of males when the Packers prevail against God’s team. (Of course, with Romney’s selection of a die-hard Packers fan for his Vice Presidential candidate, my anger issues are unlikely to be addressed by the current ticket).
The key is to reach angry men at offices and funnel that anger from common anger producing objects like computers to President Obama with slogans like “Obama Jams Copiers”:
Or “Obama Built That (Computer)”:
Or “she was talking to Obama”:
Source: Washington Post
Obama isnt going to be sitting in that chair for much longer, I hope he enjoys it while he can.
Otteray Scribe:
that was funny.
I think Clint got the dialog going, place your hope in a chair, or in Obama, its all the same.
OS: …”but I am not even sure there is a word in the English language to characterize it properly.”
****
It is a technique reserved to the theatre, not normally politics. Eastwood is an actor and did it his way.
“Two kinds of soliloquies”
“Soliloquies come in two major forms. The first is the apostrophe: a speech directed to a being who is not present but is, at least in the soliloquizer’s mind, potentially sentient: someone (or something) that might possibly hear you, see you, or sense you physically. A prayer is the most common apostrophe.” …
“Considering a soliloquy as an action instead of a reflection creates enormous advantages for the actor, who, of course, is supposed to be acting. When acting actions instead of merely musing upon them, actors engage all their senses, particularly their eyes, ears, and somatosensory (feeling) systems. Their eyes and ears become proactive, their nerves tingle at traces of air movements on their arms and the (imagined) shaking of the ground under their feet. The actor’s emotions, thereby, flow freely from the sensory responses they seek, anticipate, and feel—or think they feel.” …
http://schooltheatre.org/publications/dramatics/2012/01/soliloquy
And “Invisible Obama” has 41,000 followers on twitter.
I don’t think any of Clint Eastwood’s memorable characters would have made himself a stationary target, as he did in the speech last night. That is the difference between real life and the characters an actor plays on screen. Comedians and pundits, not to mention editorial cartoonists, are having a field day.
William (Boss) Tweed once said that he did not care what they said about him in print, but told an aide, “Just keep it out of those pictures.” He was referring to Thomas Nast’s editorial cartoons.
President Obama’s Tweet in response to the Eastwood speech, “This seat’s taken.” Screen grab with graphic at the link below.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/4641/large/Screen_Shot_2012-08-30_at_9.41.19_PM.png?1346388103
Maybe XXXXX is the election expert here. Is it best to meet there arguments with facts and chance firing them up?
Or should we ´just cool it and get OUR people to the polls, and hope the Repubs stay at home?
Bron, yes, Clint and I are pretty close to the same age. I did not say he was acting senile, because I don’t think he is. I said his speech was strange. The empty chair technique is used in Gestalt therapy, but to use it as a prop in a high profile nationally televised speech is weird. That is probably not the right word, but I am not even sure there is a word in the English language to characterize it properly.
Here is a picture that is making the rounds on the internet this morning. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo232/jaxnonnie/ca9.png
“I demand to see Invisible Obama’s invisible birth certificate.” – Michael Schaffer, The New Republic.
Otteray Scribe:
He actually did a pretty good job and he definitely hit some talking points.
Peoples first thought on this is very unsophisticated, the cliche of an older person being senile. Arent you about Clint’s age? Your mind seems to be working pretty well. My wife’s father is Clint’s age as well and he seems to be doing pretty good too, he still practices law and wins more than he loses.
Clint was making fun of Obama, an empty chair was a perfect metaphor.
“Jamelle Bouie, in arguably my favorite line of the convention, said, “This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama.”~Steve Benen on Rachel Maddow blog
‘course I am never surprised when those tough guy types argue w/empty chairs….for them the chair is always empty, no matter who is sitting in it….
Bron, no one said Eastwood’s speech was mean; just strange and off message. However, I would not take a bet on whether the Romney team had cornered whoever booked him and was clubbing the offender to death.
Clint Eastwood delivered a brilliant speech last night. Nothing mean about it.
After Clint Eastwood’s absolutely crazy mean old man “speech” last night I’d say Graham is more prognosticator than pundit.
Doggy refers to it but I think it is critical to understanding the disease that has infected todays GOP that we keep Mr. Atwaters words alive so we know what is at the heart of the angry white guy tactics.
You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. . . . You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
That sort of slimy crap is what makes me an angry white guy.
Feel like you are looking up at a spaceship that stretches from horizon to horizon? That is the Republican hot air balloon. They’ll keep gassing until election day. Get out your Stingers.
The press released from the Repubs and CNN were disgusting.
Issue, what issue? Does it mean anything? Why do you ask That? We have no further Comment. “Shut yo¨mouth, N****R!”
The “If I were a terrorist” tops them all.
Has anybody made a twitter and Facebook stuff for it.
He started, let’s help it go viral. Maybe wait until the Republican propaganda Disney-show is over first.
Pete-
“that all important 3am slot?”
Outstanding!
and and and don’t forget algore. and and and President Obama’s middle name is hussein. and and and most damming, the President has been having sex with a (wait for it) black woman.
it’s time we elected a clueless WHITE MAN. (yeah, that’s right, i went allcaps)