Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Traveling from left to right
Many TigerHawk readers have, by their testimony in comments and email, made the journey from left to right -- not on account of this blog, mind you, but on their own. Only somebody with the unimpeachable chattering class street cred of David Mamet could write the story of his journey and get it published in the pages of the Village Voice.
9 Comments:
By 
Christopher Chambers, at
Wed Mar 12, 02:02:00 PM:
Ha! It's called becoming a bitter-ass curmudgeon. David Brock chronicled the reverse course-right to left-in his iconic Blinded by the Right. He did so citing particular and nasty facts and quotes. The new book How to Rig an Election does so with a little bit of satire. And there's Andrew Sullivan, of course. Indeed, my father's own transformation from conservative to Obamafreak (which I suspect, is what's happened to Colin Powell), follows the similar events, realizations, and sitting down and plain discussing this with people. Ironically, his transformation, though seeded by the 2000 election (he voted for Bush, but it was the aftermath that got things fertilized) began with Enron and the Tom Delay/Terry Schiavo mess).
But here's the rub--Colin, my father, former GOP operatives (whether it's the "greed is good" tribe, certain neocons or the Christian Taliban crew)all had certain liberal/progressive tendencies, outlook, etc. Just buried. Mamet and "street cred?" Hmmm, first I warned you not use bastardize black slang. lol. Second, there're Mamet friends, celebs and colleagues who've said he's always had some tendencies--especially the anti-Palestinian stuff...mixed with a tinge of general misanthropy--floating in his work from the get-go. These folks are still his pals (hell, Mamet still runs around w/Alec Baldwin, for crying out loud); AP Arts & Ent. editor Dolores Barclay repeated to me...yes to me TH 'cause you know I got it like that...that Mamet himself confides that much of this so-called shift to the right is indeed a weird side effect, though not counterindictation, of getting friggin' old and living inside their own heads and ertain cliques their whole lives. Again, some folks like my dad, or even your hero Sen. Bill Frist or Colin Powell...tend to mellow. But the seemed to have the dormant or nascent tendencies in there somewhere. Guess it's like being married for 30 years and then suddenly saying hey, I'm gay!
Some people get edgey and mean. Look at George Carlin. Some are compelling but get supremely sanctimonious. Look at Bill Cosby. Some get nuttier and betray themselves. Look at Geraldine Ferraro (hmmm...I wonder how come all those downtrodden, oppressed white women, more miserable than blacks ever have been in North American history, didn't produce a landslide for her and Fritz? lol).
If you want to see Mamet's strange inner ambivalence of Mamet played out, watch the original "Homicide" (a film from which Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana and David "The Wire" Simon loosely based NBC's critically acclaimed cop show based in Baltimore). It stars Joe Montegna as a Jewish cop named Bobby Gold. Interesting stuff. Even Alec Baldwin liked it...
By Rich, at
Wed Mar 12, 03:57:00 PM:
The Homicide TV show was based on David Simon's non-fiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, not on the film you mention.
In fact, the first two seasons of the TV show were taken practically verbatim from the book
By 
, at
Wed Mar 12, 05:07:00 PM:
/glances up at Chamber's post
/laughs
By SR, at
Wed Mar 12, 07:03:00 PM:
Tell us CC: when was it exactly that you became such a "bitter-ass curmudgeon?"
By Country Squire, at
Wed Mar 12, 09:07:00 PM:
I, too, made the journey from liberal to conservative. While I am happy to see Mamet join our ranks, I can only wonder what took him so long.
Then, of course, there is the ever present Mr. Chambers - intellectual dishonesty incarnate.
“Guess it's like being married for 30 years and then suddenly saying hey, I'm gay!”
Chris, I sense you can do better than this but the shame of it is you don’t even try. It must be too difficult.
By , at
Thu Mar 13, 12:06:00 AM:
Chris, I sense you can do better than this but the shame of it is you don’t even try. It must be too difficult.
Of course he can. That isn't the point. His purpose is to get the maximal irritation out of the rightwingnuts with minimal effort on his part. He has succeeded again, though in one sense he didn't, because he wrote more than usual.
By Gary Rosen, at
Thu Mar 13, 02:44:00 AM:
I knew you'd be panting right there, Chrissy, with a typically Jew-baiting post. One of the best things about being Jewish is that antisemites are always semiliterate nitwits, misfucks, and born losers like you, Chrissy.
By Andrew Hofer, at
Thu Mar 13, 05:53:00 AM:
Seems to me Mamet has moved more to Libertarian than 'right'. However, I saw his play November, and it deserved the empty house it had (despite Nathan Lane). When he said "seats available", believe it.
By , at
Thu Mar 13, 05:08:00 PM:
A bitter-ass curmudgeon? A good definition of Chambers. Minus the bitter and the curmudgeon. I figured a ludicrously shitty writer like Chambers would immediately jump on Mamet's Village Voice piece.
Zhombre
