Romney & Reagan
“Ronald Reagan spent his adult life being an image, sometimes fictional -- as when performing in films -- and sometimes in that odd semi-reality that performers obtain in commercials. He understood, as no one did before, that on television, style supercedes content. The way you behave and look is more important than what you say or do. He knew the complexity and historical perspective do not come across on TV as well as simplicity, bald assertion, the heavy use of symbolic context, and the appeal to formulaic values: Good vs. Bad, America vs. The Enemy, Revere the Flag.”
-- Gerald Mander; In The Absence of the Sacred; 1991; pages 90-91.
We know that the republican machine had hoped to portray this year’s election, with the Carter vs. Reagan contest in 1980. They had hoped that they could make use of symbolic imagery, such as identifying President Obama as Carter-like: an intellectual who, upon finding himself in over his head, becomes isolated from “Washington.” This, they knew, when layered upon the party’s bottom-feeders’ “he is different than us” message, was their best chance to defeat Barack Obama in November.
The republican primaries offered a limited selection of potential top-tier presidential candidates. Newt Gingrich, besides being an unappealing has-been with baggage, spoke of a series of lengthy debates opposite Obama -- the very definition of the “complexity and historical perspective” their party’s Reptilian Elders wanted to avoid. And Rick Santorum was too much a lightweight for a prime-time, national election.
By May, Romney had clearly been programmed to try to take on a pseudo-Reagan image. Thus, the infamous clip of Romney telling a group of donors that he was on the lookout for some foreign incident to exploit in the way the Reaganites did the Iranian hostage crisis. The question, “just how low would Willard go?” was clearly answered.
That would almost be funny, in the most pathetic of ways, if it did not reveal Romney’s psychopathic core: the willingness to risk others’ safety and well-being for self-gain, in the way of a political contest, casts a Nixonian 5-oclock shadow over Romney’s dehydrated soul.
What is just plain funny, however, is something that was recently brought to my attention. Willard Romney not only wants to paint President Obama as “another Carter,” he actually wants to be viewed as “Reagan-like.” Really. So much so that by late spring, his campaign had “body language advisors” who were hired to teach Mitt how to carry himself like Reagan. And, indeed, if one watches film of Romney from the 2008 campaign, or even in the 2012 republican primaries, he was wooden. And, under pressure, Mitt remains a stiff. But, when he is in a “safe” zone -- in front of a packaged crowd -- watch his wag. Some of the outfits. Look at the head-tilts. And even the fake facial expressions.
Strange days have found us.
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