Keep Your Eyes on the Lies (David Brooks) by David Michael Green

[Demeter]

http://www.regressiveantidote.net/Regressive_Watch.html

Many thanks again to New York Times columnist David Brooks for another episode of Fun With Conservatism (an oxymoron if ever there was). In "The Heyday of Snobbery", poor Dave finds his sensibilities offended by that mean "bully", Borat, whom he claims "drags" his victims "into the realm of anti-semitism and vileness". Hmmm... That sounds bad!

This is all about snobbery, according to our friendly guide to regressive thought, including "blue America snobbery, as people on the coasts try to fathom those who would vote for George W. Bush. The only logical explanation is that they are racist, anti-Semitic idiots who can be blamelessly ridiculed"....First, it needs to be noted that poor Mr. Brooks' eyes are hurting from the visage of a brilliant comedian imitating a Kazakh buffoon, yet he remains strangely silent, week after week, as his team's little project in Iraq descends into hell, now to the tune of perhaps two-thirds of a million dead. "Rah-rah!" said Dave and his ilk before. Not much says them today. Anyhow, George Bush invading Iraq: now that's what I call some real bullying! Believe me, Dave, if I ever need some seriously bullying done right, it's not Borat for whom I'll be voting.

And lord knows there's no racism in the Republican Party and American conservatism! I suppose that's why Richard Nixon never built the modern GOP out of the disaffection of southern whites, using a so-called "Southern Strategy", picking up where George Wallace left off. No doubt, also, that's why regressive icon Ronald Reagan didn't launch his 1980 presidential campaign from Phildelphia, Mississippi, site of murdered civil rights workers, with the code words "I believe in states' rights". But, wait, what's that you say? Nixon did do that? Reagan too? I am shocked, shocked...

Meanwhile, though, just for the sake of an occasional nibble at reality, can we talk about what really goes on in this movie? The truth is that Borat doesn't "drag" people anywhere, and especially not anywhere they aren't already at. The scary thing about Sasha Baron Cohen's Borat for regressives like David Brooks, and the brilliance of this landmark comedy for the rest of us not yet infected with that disease, is that it exposes truths about certain folks that are barely covered by a thin and unstable veneer of uncomfortable but socially necessary political correctness.

If you think that, just like everybody else in America, a couple of beers would bring out your worst misogynist tendencies, or that you'd flee from the table if a black person joined your dinner party, then I guess Brooks is right (very right): we're all just racist, anti-semitic boors, just one Borat away from being exposed. On the other hand, if that's not you or the people you hang with, then perhaps Borat is doing America a service by showing us truths about a segment of the population which certain folks (David? Karl? Dick? I know you're out there!) would rather have kept well hidden.

So, David Brooks, just who do you hang out with? Methinks perhaps the gentleman doth protest too much.

[xchrom]

1. may david's eyes wander across this essay.

nixon

reagan

great racists both.