I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

Attaturk suggested that I write up a snarky report about a panel I attended with watertiger on Thursday night. Honestly, I was too depressed by the whole affair to write anything at the time, let alone anything snarky. But some time has elapsed – plus, I can’t sleep – so here goes.

On Thursday, there was a screening of the documentary film adaptation of What’s the Matter With Kansas? at one of the high temples of Liberal Elitism: the Walter Reed Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. A panel consisting of Joe Conason, K-Lo, Chris “Opinionator” Suellentrop, and Ryan Sager, who wrote for the mercifully now-defunct New York Sun, and moderated by sociologist Frances Fox Piven followed the screening.

I didn’t think much of the film. First of all, it’s about four years too late. Second, subsequent analysis of the premise of What’s the Matter with Kansas? has shown that Frank’s thesis, had it been taken to that next, data-driven level, would have been slightly more complicated. Finally, the filmmakers' decision not to employ any voice-over narration or probe the subjects of the film on any of their statements left me not knowing much more about the subjects than I knew going in, e.g., that the Kansan Republicans think abortion --- specifically denying abortions – is the only thing that matters.

After the screening there was a little Q&A and then a reception and I learned a few things. First, that Conason is handsome! Second, that K-Lo is the dim-bulb I’d always suspected she was, and a smug and socially crippled one at that. Third, that Suellentrop is an insufferable twit who trades exclusively in wingnut tropes. And finally, that Ryan Sager may be one of the more honest conservative pundits roaming this particular planet. (He actually copped to the fact in covering people like the Kansans portrayed in the film, he's learned that other than abortion, gay marriage, and creationism, they don’t have a thought in their heads.)

So K-Lo … First of all, she took some fire from the audience when she praised the filmmakers for not “exploiting” the fact that Dr. George Tiller, footage of whom appeared in the movie, had subsequently “died”. People began to shout, “He was assassinated!” "He was murdered!" "He didn’t just ‘die’!” So ding-dong K-Lo had to rephrase, which she did in a most phonily obsequious fashion. After the screening, I wanted to talk to her (I have no problem approaching minor pundits at these sorts of events), but she was being monopolized by some demented, middle-aged fangirl. She didn’t mingle with the other attendees at the little meet-and-greet, opting instead to remain in the hall with her acolyte. What really stood about K-Lo was that she talks really fast, so fast that she sounds like she’s perpetually gasping for air – and that when she does get something out, she doesn’t say much of anything at all. It's all wilted word salad from someone who, I suspect, got told somewhere along the line that she had the makings of some sort of intellectual, but who knows at her core that it's really not true. The gasping and speed-talking are the little tells on that score. I almost felt sorry for her until the end of the panel when she said, "When conservatives ask me if we got anything out of George Bush I say, 'John Roberts and Sam Alito'". Then she waited for applause. It's hard to convey the degree of smugness with which she made this statement. Anyway, Sonia Sotomoyor is now a justice, so blow me, K-Lo.¹ If you liked Sotomayor, you’ll love our next two nominees. But I digress …

But more interesting – and depressing – than either the film or K-Lo was the panel and, especially, the audience. Please bear in mind that the latter was comprised of hardcore liberals – the Upper West Siders at whom Joe Scarborough sneers on a daily basis, even as he lives among them. They’ve won two elections straight: “thumpin’” the opposition in 2006, and pretty much shellacking it in 2008. But here we are in August 2009, and the questions to the panel were a series of circa 2004 clichés. There was the old, “How do we reach out to these people?” thing. The tired, “Why do they hate us?” bullshit. And in response, the tried and true, “You liberals sneer at them” lie. "I heard the audience laughing!" hissed Suellentrop. (True: I laughed at the "scientist" at the Creation Museum and when wingnut panty-sniffing attorney general Phill Kline was defeated.) Conason made the only interesting point when he asked, “When do we get to see the documentary about the lives of liberals? I haven’t seen that one.” It felt as if it were the day after the 2004 election, when everyone in New York wanted to commit mass ritual suicide.

What the hell is with this idiotic and anachronistic assumption – still alive after all these years – that “we need to ‘reach out' to these people” and the bewilderment at why they hate us? Do you think that anywhere on this planet there are Republicans sitting around trying to figure out how to “reach out” to single, professional women in urban centers? Or married male academics in university towns? Or tech-heads in Palo Alto or Austin? Yet here are these liberals, still fretting over “reaching out” to people who couldn’t give a rat’s fat ass about them. They actually sounded fearful about it. I suppose some of it was due to thoughts of the Republican brownshirts showing up to intimidate Democratic congresspeople at all these town halls, but you'd think a smart bunch of people like this would not be as shell-shocked because they understood who, exactly, these creeps are.² I said to watertiger, “They all seem like they have Stockholm Syndrome. When will they realize that they are the winners?” I wanted to yell, “Listen, don’t bother! They don’t like you and they never will. More importantly, the demographics are against them and you don’t need them to win.” I found the whole thing pretty sad and demoralizing.

Later I wondered if this was part-and-parcel with the near-constant whining and hand-wringing I hear from lefties with regard to Obama. A lot of my leftie friends, especially the ones I met in Blog-o-Land, feel really let down and are always shaking their heads at me and wondering why I am not equally enraged/disappointed/disillusioned with Obama. I’ll tell you why: because during the campaign I did not project my shit all over the guy like he was some human 70mm movie screen.

Sometime in 2008, I heard Professor Dan Ariely on either Brian Lehrer or Leonard Lopate and he made a lot of sense. He talked about how Obama’s campaign was like an online dating ad in that it traded in generalities that, coupled with the fact that the vast majority of people didn’t know a lot about Obama at the time, allowed them to project all sorts of stuff onto Obama. Having done my share of online dating, I am familiar with this phenomenon. You’d see a profile that really spoke to you, although, when you thought about it, didn’t say much at all (e.g., “I love Charlie Chaplin movies. I’ve seen every Hold Steady gig ever. I hate George Bush. The hipster must die!”). Then you’d exchange a couple of emails and make a date. In the interim, you’d basically make up no end of nonsense about this poor person, probably in an effort to stay positive and manage your anxiety (e.g., “For Christmas, I’ll get him movie posters for ‘City Lights’ in fourteen different foreign languages! He and my brother will bond over table saws and lathes! We love all the same things, including tomatillos, flat-front kahkis, and the word 'solipsistic.'”), setting up all manner of unrealistic expectations. Then, when you met them, more often than not it all went, “Splat!” Once you were able to start filling in the blanks you didn’t like the person as much, or, at a bare minimum, you realized that crafting a relationship with them was going to be a lot more complicated. Same deal with Obama. During the campaign, we saw a charming, handsome intelligent guy with a pretty wife and daughters, who seemed genuinely compassionate and who had terrific public speaking skills, which he used to connect with crowds both enormous and intimate. (I know because I met the guy at a small event and was instantly bowled over.³.) If you knew anything about his relatively short political career, there was no way not to know that he was a slightly left-leaning centrist who was very into reaching consensus on virtually every issue. But if you didn’t know a lot, you could let your fantasies run wild (e.g., “He’ll bring everyone together over burgers and fries (with vegetarian options, of course) on the Fourth of July, where he'll overturn every decision Bush ever made, repeal horrible laws by fiat, pay close personal attention to every baby, puppy, and old lady present, while simultaneously singlehandedly staging the a fireworks exhibition that will shame the Gruccis!”) It was a lot harder to do this with to Hillary Clinton, because she had a much longer public history and, thanks to Wingnuttia, had been a near-constant obsession of its accomplices, our freakazoid press.

Anyway, I realize I’m all over the place here, and I apologize for this being so long and winding, but I think that the past six months have been like the months after that first date and that people are still getting a handle on who this guy is and that they're not always comfortable. They seem to still like the surface, but the surface is not what you have to wake up next to every morning for the rest of your life. That’s why I think those audience members sounded so bummed out. It’s like the day after the first date when you realize that one of two things is going to happen: you’ll keep dating, but that the relationship is going to require work – or that your search is not over – and that at some point (in four years?), you will have to go back out there and date again.

Okay, Attaturk. There's your post. I know it wasn't snarky, but may I please have that Perkins "French Silk" now, anyway?

Update: I forgot to mention that I have a friend -- a respected academic who's been spot-on about this election from the early days of the primaries -- who insists that Obama is the "transitional"-- not the "transformational" -- guy. So for all of you out there who are still disappointed, maybe there's something to cheer you.

¹By the way, now that it's a done deal, can we please remember that Sotomayor was the judge that the Republicans tried to warn Obama off even before there was a Supreme Court vacancy? They were issuing threats about how they'd shut down any nomination of Sotomayor and Obama had better not nominate her or there would be trouble, and blah blah blah. So what does Obama do? Give them the metaphorical finger and pick Sotomayor. And now, provided John Roberts didn't fuck up that oath, too, she's Justice Sotomayor. For Life. So there!
²They are the same people who let loose like this at McCain/Palin rallies.
³Okay, so I shook his hand, smiled, looked him in the eyes and said, "Best of luck, Senator." And yeah, he spoke to me. That constitutes "met" in my book. Ask CoT. He was there, too.