The Conscience - Oliver Willis
The Conscience - Oliver Willis channels Jonathan Alter, who notes Britney Spears' vacuous quote from last week:
Britney Spears, best known recently for a lip lock with Madonna, is hardly an authority on the political ramifications of September 11. But Spears has a bankable feel for the popular pulse, and her comments last week reflected a good chunk of public opinion on the subject of patriotism: "I think we should just trust the president in every decision he makes," she told CNN, "and we should just support that, and be faithful in what happens."
...and draws the conclusion...
MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, most of them Republicans, define themselves politically and define others patriotically by adherence to that simple Spears standard. The Bush White House will do everything it can to identify those voters; play to their sometimes sublimated emotions of fidelity and fear, and turn the first Tuesday in November 2004 into a referendum on the second Tuesday in September 2001. Stay Proud. Stay Safe. Vote Bush.
To which Willis adds:
Britney Spears: the political conscience of the right.
Hm. Fascinating.
As John at Freespeech.com says:
Which of course suggests that you or I or anyone is free to point out any arbitrary liberal media starling as the political conscience of the left.
Which is it? Johnny Depp? Harrison Ford? Alec Baldwin? Barbra Streisand? Larry Flint? Can you think of other famous people who say vacuous things that we can arbitrarily declare the political conscience of the left?
Hm. A list is in order, here.
I'd like to get celebs, and their vacuous quotes.
THE POLITICAL CONSCIENCE OF THE LEFT
- Cher - famous for "And the Beat Goes On" - said about the President "I don't like Bush. I don't trust him. I don't like his record. He's stupid. He's lazy..."If you think the president is an ass, fine – after four years you can vote him out. But the Supreme Court – that's 30 years! The Jerry Falwells of this world will be right in your back pocket. You won't have one f--king right left."
- Jennifer Aniston - known for a haircut and a husband, mainly - on the President ("Bush is a f*cking idiot") and on Jenna Bush ("We'd [Brad Pitt and her] pass her in the hall and Brad would say, 'Heyyyy, Jenna, wanna beer? I got one in the truck!"").
- Whoopie Goldberg - famous as a has-been comedian: "I don't agree, you see, I don't really view communism as a bad thing."
- Woody Harrelson - whose greatest intellectual achievement has been appearing in an Oliver Stone movie - said "“I read in a paper here [England] about a woman who held out the part of her taxes that would go to the war effort. Something like 17%. I like that idea, though in the US it would have to be more like 50%. If you consider money as a form of energy, then we see half our taxes and half the US government's energy focused on war and weapons of mass destruction. Over the past 30 years, this amounts to more than ten trillion dollars. Imagine that money going to preserving rainforest or contributing to a sustainable economy (as opposed to the dinosaur tit we are currently in the process of sucking dry). (Is Mr. Harrelson aware that mammary glands are a feature of mammals?)
We can (and will) go on...
So with a nod to Jon "The East Is Red" Alter, I need to rephrase him just a bit:
MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, all of them Democrats or Greens, define themselves politically and define others patriotically by adherence to that simple Alter standard, "whatever we say or do, we're smarter than Republicans". The left will do everything it can to identify those voters; play to their almost-never sublimated emotions of arrogance, superiority, entitlement and fear of their fellow citizen, and turn the first Tuesday in November 2004 into a referendum on the first Tuesday in November 2000. Stay Proud. Stay Perpetually but Inarticulately Outraged. Never Park the Bus. Vote Anybody But Bush.
It may not roll off the tongue, but...
Posted by Mitch at
September 8, 2003 08:17 AM
