Robert Redford: 'I Feel Out of Place in the Country I Was Born Into'

[SummerSnow]

“Tonight, for the first time I can remember, I feel out of place in the country I was born into and the citizenship I’ve loved my whole life. For weeks I’ve watched with sadness as our civil servants have failed us, turning toward bigotry, mean-spiritedness, and mockery as the now-normal tools of the trade. “How can we expect the next generation to step up and serve, to be interested in public life, and to aspire to get involved when all we show them is how to spar, attack, and destroy each other? “It’s hard to blame young people for calling us out, and pointing to our conflicts between the values we declare, and those we stand behind only when it’s convenient to partisanship. Many people are rightly calling it a damn mess. “But I want to encourage you to dig deep for hope and civility right now—to try to make connections with people you disagree with, to be better than our politicians. “We don’t have to share the same motivations to want the same outcomes. Let’s focus on each other, and strengthening our communities, and reflecting on what’s happening. Let’s live in justice and respect and let others fight it out now to the bitter ends. “This is our country too. Every woman, man, and child in it, our American future. “We’ve got work to do.”--Robert Redford

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/robert-redford-feel-place-country-161723593.html

[Baitball Blogger]

1. He's right.

Until we succeed in showing the right wing voters how their votes are going to turn this country into something they don't recognize either, it's going to be a straight shot away from the principles that made this country great.

[elmac]

20. the problem with RW voters

is that they are RW and beyond showing, reasoning with. They could care less about their country. What they do care about is their bank account, their superiority, their fake god and will gladly commit suicide to prove you wrong.

[LiberalLovinLug]

35. Yup. And the R's that hold the power are insufferable, win or lose

They look down on us already, but if we are in the minority? The contempt is palatable. Any attempt to put out your hand is met with a fake out back and laughing as they watch you get fooled. One of the best part of winning to them is not having to listen, or compromise with the other side for four years.

And if we are in an majority position at all, its all out war! Any attempt to put out your hand then is met with spitting on it. And screaming conspiracy theories explaining why you are in power. They are the rightful leaders, and you are just there due to cheating with millions of fraudulent voters, or George Soros, etc. A place holder until they, the rightful rulers, finally get back in power to reverse everything you did.

And those RW voters follow their leaders in that contemptuousness.

[SWBTATTReg]

46. And they talk about the America that is flown over and ignored by the elites when in fact ...

it is these people and their arrogant 'I alone can do it all' thinking that are 'flying' over America and its inhabitants (us).

Hypocrites.

They are in effect, describing themselves when they talk about the so called elites who ignore everyday Americans, flying coast to coast, while ignoring the rest of us.

No matter where one is from, anywhere in this great country of ours, that democratic principals have united all of us (those in DU, in democratic parties all across the US) into sharing common causes for the greater good of all of us, and that we truly are far more concerned w/ the status of everyday Americans then they are, by far.

The other side has proven repeatedly that they don't share our common causes by passing tax cuts for the ultra rich and corporate interests while leaving crumbs for the rest of us. They shown far more interest in taking away ACA benefits, same sex marriages and / or preventing us from expanding other benefits to more of us (our elderly in reducing future SS benefits etc.). They shown more interest in hurting our minorities with spurious attacks (e.g., attacking the protests via bended knees) and attacking our rich immigrant communities by deporting members of these communities, in many cases illegally. All because of some righteous rationale that truly makes no sense to anyone else, and in many cases is illegal and wrong. Just plain wrong.

They shown far more interest in saying NO then yes.

[Flash953]

47. you could be right whats more important is registering voters and the Dems coming out to vote

Dems need to come out and vote. We have the numbers we just seem not to always be there on election day.

[Kilgore]

2. Did not know he was still alive

[riverwalker]

4. He has a new movie

“Old man with a gun” with Sissy Spacek

[Kilgore]

7. Good to know

He has been off my radar screen for a long time.

[OldManTarHeel]

21. 'The Old Man with a Gun' Movie will be his last . . as Sundance Retired in August

He will be missed . . !

[hlthe2b]

3. ...

Me too, Bob. Stay healthy, we need you.

[smirkymonkey]

5. K&R

[lpbk2713]

6. "We don't have to share the same motivations to want the same outcomes."

Does Redford read DU GD?

[manor321]

8. That sounds like bullshit "both siderism"

The problem is Republican voters.

[shraby]

9. Bite yer tongue! Robert Redford has been a long time champion for all that's right

about the Democrats. Takes care of the environment because he cares about it.

Don't ever call Redford a bullshitter. He's far from it.

[malaise]

10. Ditto

[Thekaspervote]

18. Agree! Fine, be angry but know who you are fighting against. Robert Redford is not one of them

[bluestarone]

23. Sooooo TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Aristus]

12. Be careful that when you stir the shit, you don't get any on you.

I have a very highly-attuned 'both-siderism' bullshit-o-meter. This isn't it. RR is a staunch progressive.

[lunatica]

13. All of us can learn a ton of how to be activists from Robert Redford!

I’m delighted he’s weighing in because he’s a real icon for Progressive activism.

[Newland56]

11. Where are the statespeople

“So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”

John Kennedy

[lunatica]

14. You have to have common interests to work with in the first place

I can’t think of a single thing that Trump and I have in common interest. Perhaps you can.

[Newland56]

24. Shooting war then

We need to win in Nov and then again in 2 years
BUT
My nose holding trump voting parents do cherish the future of their grandchildren. They are always honest in their way. They are honestly good people.
I am absolutely opposed to reaching across the aisle with the current state of our republican leaders. We must not compromise. But there will come a day when we have righted the ship that the portion of our population the favors a legit, rational, and civil conservative voice in our govt should have a voice.
Make no mistake
Republican legislators today are not conservative but use their pulpit to rally conservative people around them through fear mongering and dishonesty.
We need to right the ship. We need to expose the liars and power grabbers for what they are and erase their influence in our country.
We can take control and then treat them the way we have been treated and totally disenfranchise legit Americans who have a different viewpoint. We can do that.
I am not talking about the actual scum senators and congress people. I’m talking about the real people that have been victized by them.
I’m talking about the mechanic that repairs your car, the grocery store clerk, your child’s school teacher, the nurse that gave you stitches, the ambulance driver that rushed you to the hospital after the accident, etc etc etc
We can eradicate these people. No doubt.
We can do that. We and they can take up arms and we can shoot our parents and co workers and have them shoot us and our children.
Today is not the day for compromise. Today is not the day for fence mending but when we get power back and restore the founders intent for the governed we best have the wisdom, courage, humbleness, and compassion to remember and act on John Kennedy’s and Barack Obama’s words of one America. One country.
I’m angry enough today to fight. My emotions say to hell with every one of them.
My intellect and hope says there will come a day that it will be possible to restore civility to public discourse and be able to civilly debate our differences and hopefully resolve them civilly.
Until we bring that day back to America
Fuck trump
Fuck graham
Fuck McConnell
Fuck flake
Fuck em all
They are poisonous to our people and a cancer to our country

[lunatica]

26. Ok then

That’s more like the truth.

Welcome to DU!

[NNadir]

15. Me too, me too. n/t

[Honeycombe8]

16. He rarely makes statements this bold.

He's as disheartened as the rest of us.

[llmart]

17. I Feel Out of Place in the Country I Was Born Into

So do I, Mr. Redford. So do I.


I'm wondering if we should even call ourselves "United States". There is nothing united about us.

[elmac]

19. I've had a feeling of living behind enemy lines since putin's boy took over

but really started when the Government Of Putin, the GOP, was firmly in control.

[2naSalit]

22. K&R

[shockey80]

25. Redford is not alone.

[Kyblue1]

27. We have always had political division in this country

but the extremists on the right have never had this much power. Thanks to Citizen United the influence of money in the media has allowed the wingnuts and their wealthy corporate allies to control the political narrative. I blame the Republican Party, everyone of them and especially McConnell, Grassley, Graham, for promoting the hateful divide in this country. The Republcan party has gained power by uniting the religious right with the nativists, bigots and phony patriots. I agree with Redford that this country is not the country of my ancestors who fought to preserve its values. I wonder if the German people ot the 1930's had the same concerns about where they were heading.

[watoos]

28. Wow how ironic, 2 days ago

My daughter took her 5 year old son to NY City. One of her stops was the Statue of Liberty, she texted me a picture of my grandson in front of the statue wearing the pointy statue head gear. I saw the picture and my first thought was just what RR posted. I texted her back and told her to make sure she explains to my grandson what that statue stands for. She texted me back, don't worry I already did.

[Jarqui]

29. " and let others fight it out now to the bitter ends."

Maybe I've misunderstood him but I'm not sure that I entirely agree.

The GOP just put a person of very questionable character on the Supreme court after stealing another seat from Obama.

With Citizens United, gerrymandering, various games against voter registration or counting, etc, this is not a democracy any longer. The will of the majority is not being respected. It has been overthrown by money and the agendas of a minority.

I am no longer convinced civility is going to hand it back.

[in2herbs]

30. I agree Jarqui. It feels like the first and only time D's started to make any inroad to fixing this

mess is when we stopped going high and started fighting back instead of asking "please." I agree with Redford's premise but there is much that has to be fixed (gerrymandering, voter supression, etc.) before things are equal again and civility can be restored. We must rely on the youth.

[Jarqui]

32. "We must rely on the youth."

I have great hopes for the youth but we sure haven't given them much of an example with this GOP conduct. I fought for Obama hoping to leave my children something.

I'm undecided on how to deal with it. It's been going on for a long time. Aspects of this date back to Nixon, Iran Contra, Willie Horton, etc for me. The GOP have been politically stealing much of my life. Several generations of youth over that time have come and aged.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do but being nice and civil isn't at the top of my priorities any longer. That has not served me well.

[sprinkleeninow]

34. It was somewhat heartening to read Redford's reflections, BUT

I am not of the mindset to reach across any aisles at this point in an attempt to change right wing mindsets. Their thinking processes are off.
We live amongst them and it's frustratingly stressful.

Eventually those who come to the light will do so when they come to the end of themselves, themselves.

That's my stance presently.

💙🇺🇸🌊

[bdamomma]

31. I agree

let's be better than our politicians!! damn straight. Thank you Robert Redford.

[StarzGuy]

33. It's so easy...

...to hold these views when you are rich. The rich don't live in my world. I can only hope things might change but not in what is left of my life cycle. I will continue to be spiraled down into despair, poverty and declined health because you see I am one in that division line between truly despondent and running out of food monthly now. I rely on the charity of St. Mary's food bank for monthly food boxes. Unfortunately, those boxes don't have a lot of quality or that I get large packaged salads and other near rotting fresh vegetables all of which I could never eat before becoming completely spoiled.


Life is hard, I get that but when you become disabled, such as I now have been dealing with for the past 8 years, life to just survive gets much harder. I have lived on my own most of my life with no family structure to help. So, I find at times I wish not to continue in this life. Given the state of our political discourse now, I see life becoming more difficult for the disabled. Of course, after all, it is our fault, right?

[sprinkleeninow]

36. From my heart to yours, 💙.

I posted up thread and almost spoke the words you did. The well-off can offer things like 'let's make nice'.

Not so for the hurting, disenfranchised, etc.

I almost said this same thing you posted, but after yesterday, didn't feature some dissing from others.

[defacto7]

37. I agree one hundred percent.

It doesn't mean we shouldn't be tough as hell, we just don't have to be screaming, frantic, lying shits like they are. That doesn't work in the long haul, it only appeals to an idiot few. We need to bring back sanity.

[Solly Mack]

38. Been there, still there.

[Perseus]

39. Too generic

Doesn't point out where the partisanship and discord comes from, and it is important to tell the full story, his comments are too careful and infers the blame exists on both sides. That is my view on his post.

[Beringia]

41. I agree

He talks in such generalities.

[appalachiablue]

40. Demeaning and reducing the role of govt. & public service

has been a hard right and libertarian goal for decades. A weak govt. with poor leaders & fewer public sector workers, plus no taxes & no regulation = more $, power for the private sector.

And it's ugly to watch.

[rickyhall]

42. I was told the day by a nice lady the democrats be crazy!

She supports a con man, liar, thief, racist, misogynist and we're crazy!

[dustyscamp]

43. Redford is and always will be a great man

[Upthevibe]

44. Good post.....

from one of the best.....

[trof]

45. I'm 77 and a veteran. I feel EXACTLY the same way.

[58Sunliner]

48. I'd like to give RR the benefit of the doubt.

But it really does make a difference when you have actually had to struggle, put up with sexism, racism, disabilities etc... He has not. As for the reach across the aisle crap-it really does not address the seriousness or the extremes that are being driven by the repubs. They don't want the same outcomes.We don't have the same motivations.
On one hand I want to ask what country did you think you grew up in? Did you not see the abuses? I think he meant the idealism associated with the hope or future of our stated ideals. But it seems like it's been so much window dressing. The hour is getting late and the people in power are throwing pretense to the wind. With ugly, brutal, acts of greed, they are trying to remake this country to suit their own gains. This statement by RR, much as I admire him, as an artist and champion, is clueless, on so many levels.

[roamer65]

49. I wish I could share his optimism, but I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet.

This world has some very dark days ahead of it.

[demmiblue]

50. K&R

[struggle4progress]

51. I think it's always been a long strange uphill climb around here