I had disregarded my own prohibition on spirits because of antibiotics for a sinus infection, and had a couple gin and tonics in me; probably didn't help with the inhibitions.
And then the screen when dark. At first I thought we had a glitch, but Clint Eastwood's gravely voice came over the surround sound.
And the room fell dead silent. I mean dead silent.
And we listened and we watched and I began weeping.
Weeping around my golfing buddies is always problematic. But I checked, and there were a few wet eyes in the house.
And then Eastwood said something like, Detroit knows what it is like to nearly lose everything...
And then the pictures of middle class families, leading to what I thought was going to be a plea to buy Chrysler.
And that never came.
The thing built and built to an emotional crescendo. It caught the Great Recession. It caught the fear and anger I have had over the past ten years, that we have stood by and watch rich ass holes bankrupt the middle class.
I flashed on phone calls I have made for customer care, and listened to a foreign voice. I flashed on looking on every electronic device I use, and seeing Made in China on it. I flashed on buying a golf hat, and reading "Made in Vietnam". I flashed on Barry Grigsby who died in Vietnam in 1967.
I flashed on the articles by Mitt Romney saying that Detroit and the auto industry should have been allowed to fail. In fact the right wing is adamant that the auto bail out was wrong, and we should have allowed Chrysler, and G.M. to be shut down, losing millions of jobs, to "cleanse the economy". How is losing millions of jobs, dooming millions to poverty a "cleansing condition"? I guess it is if you are worth 300 millions dollars as Romney is.
The rich asshole. That is really what they are. These jerks have, for over thirty years, worked hard to gut America's economy while getting unbelievably rich. They have bankrolled Fox News and other conservative loudspeakers, to convince who they are screwing that they are really not getting screwed.
Like I say to my conservative friends, these blowhards on the right HATE YOU! They are NOT your friends!
And they right now are desperately trying to buy the Presidential election with "Citizens United" billions, in an unfair political fight.
Eastwood at one point said one punch wouldn't knock America out. I would offer that there will be many blows at the American Dream, aimed at creating a permanent aristocracy. The super rich will not give up until the middle class is dead.
We will never get out of the tunnel to play the third quarter.
And our only hope is if the middle class, especially white middle aged baby boomers, wake up and realize that the danger is NOT in the Latinos, or the African-Americans, the danger is in the corporate boardrooms of this country.
I can not believe that corporate Chrysler did the "Halftime in America" to have the reaction it had. I think they were so boneheaded that they hired a known conservative voice (I still see Eastwood at the right hand of Reagan), and did a commercial about selling their cars and that was about it. But in an attempt to re-create the optimism of their conservative hero, they did...but the optimist this time is a Democrat! Romney is the nay sayer.
So, somewhere in there they screwed up. They touched the heartstrings of America, and showed us the way out of the dark that began their commercial.
The way out is through President Obama, not through the conservative philosophy that got us into this mess. President Obama was elected on, remember, the "Yes We Can" corny phrase. Palin has mocked this, Romney has mocked this, because it scares the hell out of them.
And it is working!
And what did Eastwood really say, "Yes we Can"...we can do it. Detroit did it; with a government bailout that the cons hate.
And of course that is the whole point.
If we decide to elect them back into power, we as the middle class, are finished.
I think the commercial was a wake up call, a call to optimism, and a call to finish the economic recovery that is plainly ongoing. YES WE CAN!
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