The Revenge of the Outlaw Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood’s first movie role was in one of those typical, 1950’s B-movie horror flicks called The Creature.  He would later star in more memorable films like Dirty Harry and High Plains Drifter  and Western TV series such as “Death Valley Days” (1956), “Rawhide” (1959-1965) and “Maverick” (1959).

He’s always played the tough-talking loner, unafraid of telling the truth or taking on the bad guys single-handedly.   So, he was made for the role at the RNC Convention, when he introduced Mitt Romney to the GOP audience.  It was sort of a sequel to his various films.  Call it, "The Revenge of the Outlaw Clint Eastwood."

Somehow, he got duped into shilling for Obama in a Super Bowl ad for Chrysler last February.  “It’s Half-Time in America,” he grittily intoned, unwittingly pitching for the very working class union members who bankrupted Chrysler, setting the company up for de facto government ownership by taking Federal funds.  Chrysler now had to play by Obama’s and the union’s rules.

So, when the RNC invited Eastwood to introduce its presidential nominee at the convention, he saw his chance and accepted it.  According to the current stories, he changed the script as he was about to go on stage.  Had Romney’s campaign vetted Eastwood beforehand?  They would have been fools if they hadn’t.  Eastwood probably knew that.  He also knew what he was going to say before he got on stage.

As Eastwood seemingly doddered and stumbled over words, the Alyinskite Media saw a target and salivated.  Marksman that he is, it’s just as hard to imagine that Eastwood didn’t know he was in their crosshairs.  He knew what he was doing.  He’s an actor, after all.  He played his part perfectly.  He seemed to trip over his tongue on the ad-libbed conversation with Obama, but delivered the scripted part of his speech perfectly.

Romney’s campaign was probably wringing its hands, especially the younger staff members.  They were no doubt panicking over the younger, image-conscious Independent voters were thinking, whom they had so carefully packaged their campaign to attract.  Here was this doddering old (82) duffer screwing everything up for them.

ABC News reacted right on cue this morning, a Saturday morning when young people and their children would most likely to be watching, to mock Eastwood’s performance.  “Did you see Eastwood’s very straaaaaannge performance at the convention?” the young anchorette laughed.  “Talking to an empty chair?”  They played a brief clip of the impromptu act.

The young independents have a saying, “Dumb is the new smart.”  That could be taken two ways – as a criticism of the Tea Party and its mostly older members or as a tacit admission of their own arrested development.  Tea Parties may bitterly cling to their guns and religion, but Gen X and their juniors tenaciously cling to high school cliques and peer pressure.  The Liberal Gen Xers are the clique whom no Gen Xer dares to contradict.  Speak the truth, or even just seek the truth, and they will ostracize you.

Gen X socialists are putting their followers under a ban of seeing the movie 2016.  They don’t want them to even think about it.  Do so, question Obama’s legitimacy, competence, or goals in his second term, and they will “unfriend” you from the social media – Facebook, Twitter, and others.

These American kids – they’re certainly not mature adults if, even with children of their own, they can’t make an independent decision (and you can’t do that unless you examine both sides of an issue) without consulting their clique leaders, or stand in fear of their censorship) – like their Chinese counterparts, don’t want to know anything about politics.  Their answer is to shrug when they’re warned that, if Obama is elected to a second term, by 2020 they will no longer be allowed to own private property, inherit their parents’ property or leave what property they have to their children, and reply, “Whatever.  Leave me alone.”

They can’t identify with a Clint Eastwood.  Aside from his age, they think he belongs to a generation that idealized freedom and individuality and is dying out.  This is the generation of collectivism where everyone absolutely must wear blue jeans, listen to unmemorable music that is here today and gone tomorrow, and keep their politics to themselves if they don’t agree with the in-crowd.

Not discussing religion, politics or sex, used to be the code of polite society.  The taboo on sex was promptly thrown out the window in the Sixties.  Religion has been scolded out of popularity, leaving on politics.  You can discuss politics, absolutely:  if it’s Liberal or Progressive Democrat politics.  No self-respecting Gen Xer would ever appear at a Tea Party rally, even though they have the most to lose if Obama is re-elected.

Gen Xers just figure they’ll play whatever hand is dealt them.  The “new smart” is to play whatever game is being played, and game that system and come out on top.  The idea of losing their inheritance.  “That’s ridiculous,” the leader of a certain Facebook clique jeered.  “How can someone be so ignorant?”

The young lady was told that the notion isn’t ridiculous to the Chinese.  That’s exactly what they do.  There are very few houses in China.  What could be called houses are shacks and shanties in the run-down part of the cities and the poor villages in the far-off countryside.  The young Chinese sneer at living out there.  They much prefer the lights, the restaurants, and comforts of modern, glittering Shanghai, which offers plenty of diversions for the price of freedom.

The Gen Xers don’t think Eastwood is brave or courageous; they think he’s old and stupid.  They think we Tea Partiers are old and stupid.  Their own arrested development (versus our alleged senility)?  Nonsense.  And if they are suffering from that malady, it’s not a problem.  Loss of freedom.  Who cares?  Being taken for a ride?  Why, they’re too smart for that.

Wisdom comes with age.  Clint Eastwood is a brilliant actor and director.  At 82, he’s still up to it.  Bravo to Dirty Harry for a magnificent performance.  We heard him, even if the younger generation was deaf, blind, and dumb to his message.  They’ll have to deal with the future they inherit, not us.  When they’re locked into a collectivist society where they’re told where to work, live, play, and how to get there, what they can buy and what they can’t leave to their children, and when they will be forbidden from protesting or registering their dissatisfaction, most of us will long be gone.

Those left to witness their plight will be too old to do anything but shrug and say, “Whatever.”