The "Vince Vaughn"ing of America

[stanwyck]

I loathe Vince Vaughn. OK. I don't know him. And when I saw him on The Daily Show he seemed like a decent guy.
But I loathe the Vince Vaughn persona. He's brought George W. Bush's phony "guy I'd like to get drunk with" character to the big screen. The "bad boy" who's such a guy's guy. The kind of guy the NASCAR guys want to hang with...the guys who treat women badly...isn't that adorable...and think they're tough guys because they've been to Vegas and played poker.
They're the "to the victors go the spoils" guys with the cigars. Cars, women, clothes.
Only, look below the surface, and these bad boys usually didn't earn the spoils.
Mommy and Daddy got them into their fancy schools...they leapfrogged over more worthy applicants who didn't have the connections.
Mommy and Daddy bankroll the lifestyle. Setting them up in businesses...then bailing them out when they fail.
Mommy and Daddy got them into the Guard and the expensive pilot training..paid for by taxpayers whose own kids couldn't even get on the waiting lists. Then, the Bad Boy "stood down" with two years of training left. Walked away.
This weeks Entertainment Weekly is about Vaughn's new movie "The Wedding Crashers". Fine. The entertainment industry employs hundreds of thousands of Americans. We need those jobs. And these days, who would begrudge someone sitting in a cool, dark theater for a couple of hours and enjoying themselves. Not me.
But when I read Vaughn arranged for a tour of The White House during filming, and Bush showed up to make one of his Guy's Guy witticisms, "Uh, summer come early this year, son?" to the director, wearing a T-shirt, I saw red. (OK, not as witty as "You're a real piece of work" to a foreign leader).
Go ahead and vote for the "guy's guy" with his fake machismo. And shrug off that along with your vote comes the evangelicals who are blurring the line between church and state. And who want to squash stem cell research and deny women choice. Pay no attention to how corporate America is trashing the environment.
You think your support of Bush makes you a real player. A bona fide Marlboro Man.
But let me tell you this. The real Bad Boys are not safe in America getting drunk and telling fart jokes. Many of them are sitting in the hot sun in Iraq. They know what a dead child looks like lying in bombed out rubble. And, yes, they chose to be in the military. They're no better than the young people here. And no worse.
And many of the authentic Bad Boys have the courage to protest this war. They're in the streets. They want to stop the madness.
But you, Vince Vaughn, are not one of them. You support the troops. You are not the troops. And you and George W. Bush are clueless. Your brand of machismo is manufactured. And false. Bush had his chance to find out the reality of war. And he walked away.
You strive to embody cool guy machismo. As long as you don't have to get your hands dirty. Leave the wet work to the hired help.
If you support Bush and his lying to the world, go to Iraq. Not for a photo opp. Sit in the hot sun for hours. Maintain heavy equipment which might malfunction. Watch for children, yes, children who might be carrying explosives. Now, what do you do? Kill a child? Not so funny anymore, is it?
Fight the boredom, tedium, and hopelessness. Wonder about your family. Your girlfriend. Your children.
And tell yourself that the dead bodies, our soldiers and Iraqi civilians, are "worth it".
I don't buy your brand of masculinity. I don't want a president who doesn't know history or geography and is proud of it. I don't want a president who isn't strong enough to stand in front of an audience that hasn't been carefully vetted and screened. I don't want a president who thinks stubbornness is leadership.
To me, your Bad Boy persona isn't adorable.
It's disgusting.
And when I see you on the "Wedding Crashers" posters, I don't think "what a cool guy."
I think, what a candyass.