This election, let's not be afraid, as Paul Ryan has suggested of the heavy books and Greek columns that represent the elitism of the Democratic opposition, because we need to think of spectacles like the RNC as the kind of "high theater" based on heavy books and needing Greek columns even like the ones below at Miami University of Ohio.
This is the convention of high art not unlike the 9/11 attack being referred to on the day of 9/11 by a CNN consultant as "low-cost, high concept" and Clint Eastwood's speech at the RNC didn't disappoint, although it would be interesting to know how much he received as an appearance fee.
Clint Eastwood gave a perfect rendition of the deconstruction of celebrity. Perhaps he saw Kirk Douglas' appearance on Bill Maher's Real Time and thought of how sad and pathetic it was to show how difficult it was to be an aging celebrity who wished to be celebrated but was patronized by an institution based on lies and deceit. He didn't want to be a prop, especially since he'd been co-opted by Bush 41 and "make my day". And yet the crowd tried to be the empty chair he spoke to, as though President Obama might be there, but to the GOP, he is as all political influence in democratic hands, an absent and idealized Other to be reviled, like throwing peanuts to CNN camerawomen. Apparently they were angry that his 'half-time in America" ad for Chrysler was too close to the Democratic message The average viewer might think the drunk ramblings to an empty chair was simply a bad performance; it was Krapp's first tape or "Some Exit". Like the tiff between Eastwood and Spike Lee over Iwo Jima, the film Invictus proved the true global political ideology necessary now and gave us better insight on Eastwood's ideology. His performance at the RNC showed how this event would have been better framed as a celebrity roast and in this case, rMoney is on the platter.
Fri Aug 31, 2012 at 9:01 AM PT: Perfect rejoinder from The President: http://twitter.com/...