2012 US General Election Discussions: Start to Finish

[The_Lady_Snow]

Originally Posted by Reader

Come on you guys, the empty chair thing was just one moment in an otherwise stellar career. Seriously, "The Bridges of Madison County" was a superlative film, by far his best work. It was well-written, made me cry at times and really left me wanting more; I've seen it a dozen times! It was so romantic, so touching and really very realistic. I even have it on DVD and it's almost worn out. Oh. Uh, wait, wait, I think I got confused. Yeah, I did. I meant to say "Dirty Harry", yeah, that's it. "Dirty Harry". I love that flick. I've worn that sucker out!

*sighs*

It's not surprising you would dismiss Eastwood's stupidity his disrespect to The POTUS. Here's why I said what I said:

I was a fan of Eastwood, I grew up as a kid watching his old westerns, and bawled like a baby at the end of Gran Torino. Paint me shocked and surprised when I hear that he is going to be a speaker at the RNC, I am going to risk being honest the pit of my stomach dropped and I thought oh fuck here we go, please don't let this man that you have enjoyed in cinema be that guy who is going to be just like the other guys who are gathered in the name of hate..

I don't know if you view or viewed the RNC like I do, I am going to guess you don't since I am a Latina, Woman, Feminist, and I am part of the LGBTQI umbrella. What I watched as I looked into the sea of white, is a whole lotta fucking racism, hate, zealotry and then this man, who as a kid you thought was cool, then as an adult touched you in a current film get up on a podium and then that man takes your nose and smears it in shit like you are some kind of bad dog.

That man stood up there and DISMISSED OUR POTUS in a disgusting, racist, white hate demeanor that I just was at a loss for words. I did not know if I should feel bad that this man was making an ass out of not only him, his party, his family and this country or slap him off the fucking podium and tell him to take his shit elsewhere. I watched this man become one more white face in a sea of hate, dismissively point to an empty chair while he had a *pretend conversation* with the POTUS who is a Man of Color.


I am 43 years old, I know and recognize racism at it's ugliest and what Eastwood did on behalf of his political party was just that. Racism, he is now to me a part of the problem.

He's just to *me* another white guy, who's fathered 7 children by 5 different women trying to tell me, a non white woman who's body is hers yet he and his party think differently. I am a queer woman who he dislikes because he is all worried about the sanctity of the nuclear family while he hikes his leg up and pisses kids out like they are candy in a pez dispenser and yet he has the nerve to do what he did?

Here's what happened in I forgot to seperate character from reality when dealing with idiots like him who use their careers to make hated political statements. He's not the old guy from Gran Torino, he's not the bad ass on The Good The Bad and The Ugly.

He's Clint Eastwood, old white senile man, a Republican who was used and let himself be used at the cost of his public image to spew out some hate. That right there is what over rides it for me, it's hard for me to be around, look at, hear a racist especially a romanticized racist once they show their asses. The only thing he did for me was make it clear, he's part of that sea of white that wants nothing to do with the likes of me.

All because I am a Latina, Woman, Queer, Feminist....

So yeah, seriously.....


Oh and while he is doing this on that god damn podium looking *DOWN* at an empty chair telling a Man of Color this and that. THAT right there is racism Reader, and that shit right there PISSES me off and DISGUSTS me to no end. Kinda like when someone is like really? Why you gotta be mad at the dude he's Dirty Harry.

I can't afford forgetting who he really is, I am a little embarrased that I did.

[Corkey]

I really don't care what an actor does on their own time n dime. But when they get up on the public political stage and insult The sitting President of the U.S. for the whole f*ing world to see, Buddy I have a huge problem with that. The whole Eastwood incident is a national shame on us, that this President is publicly insulted and it's called funny is abhorrent! No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are a bunch of adolescents, WE ARE!

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Corkey

I really don't care what an actor does on their own time n dime. But when they get up on the public political stage and insult The sitting President of the U.S. for the whole f*ing world to see, Buddy I have a huge problem with that. The whole Eastwood incident is a national shame on us, that this President is publicly insulted and it's called funny is abhorrent! No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are a bunch of adolescents, WE ARE!

You know, it would bother me less if the GOP hadn't spent most of the last decade arguing, quite frankly, that the merest hint that one might be considering the possibility, of thinking about entertaining the idea of disagreeing with the Bush the Younger as tantamount to treason. Back in '03 or '04 if one said that Bush was wrong about any subject matter, the GOP would paint that person as being the real and true leader of Al Qaeda even if Mr. Bush said something demonstrably, factually untrue. Yet, now, that a Democrat is POTUS anything this side of some statement that would have the Secret Service at your door is patriotic dissent. When we once again have a Republican POTUS, we'll be told that just as between 2001 and 2009, merely thinking that they are wrong will be evidence that one hates mother, babies, puppies and ice cream.

If the GOP has decided that one should only respect a legitimate POTUS and legitimacy derives from being a Republican, then they should at least *say* that. I would respect the Republican party much more if they would simply have the courage of their convictions and say what everyone knows they mean which is this; the office of the President should be respected when it is occupied by a Republican but not when occupied by a Democrat.

Cheers
Aj