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Stupid hostilty
Nov. 30th, 2004 06:37 pmAll right. You have won; and in my view, although your right to win is not certain, it is certain that your opponent deserved to lose. But you run the risk of having your inadequacies exposed by the very fact of your victory.
You have a right to attack some of your enemies. If Michael Moore is not a liar, then the word liar has no meaning. He his a brilliant propagandist; so were Willi Muenzenberg and Joseph Goebbels. But you have no right to sneer. And you are totally stupid if you think that your political victory redesigns aesthetic merit. Some of the more doltish right-wing columnists have taken it upon themselves to look down upon Bruce Springsteen and the other musicians who supported Kerry - or rather, as they made it clear, had an uneradicable moral objection to George W. Bush. But this is not only vindictive, it is stupid. Springsteen, along with other musical giants (two names: John Fogerty and Jackson Browne), may have missed the moral issues that other Americans regarded as decisive, but this does not make him any less of an artist.
In a hundred years, it may be that the 2004 campaign will be remembered not so much for the result as for the fact that it gave occasion to some of the finest musical performances on record. If they have the sense to sell the live records of Springsteen and friends' concerts, there is no doubt that it will remain as a defining moment of what popular music can achieve - aesthetically speaking. The mere thought of Springsteen and Browne duetting must have made any music lover, whatever their politics, enthusiastic; and in fact I am informed that every concert was attended by a sprinkling of polite but enthusiastic Bush voters.
That being the case, the conservative columnists who have taken it on themselves to mock the great musician for his political choices have only underlined their smallness. And I think that the future of American conservatism will be determined by whether this sort of vindictive, ignorant, tone-deaf shower is or is not seen to be its typical face rather than a rancorous fringe.
You have a right to attack some of your enemies. If Michael Moore is not a liar, then the word liar has no meaning. He his a brilliant propagandist; so were Willi Muenzenberg and Joseph Goebbels. But you have no right to sneer. And you are totally stupid if you think that your political victory redesigns aesthetic merit. Some of the more doltish right-wing columnists have taken it upon themselves to look down upon Bruce Springsteen and the other musicians who supported Kerry - or rather, as they made it clear, had an uneradicable moral objection to George W. Bush. But this is not only vindictive, it is stupid. Springsteen, along with other musical giants (two names: John Fogerty and Jackson Browne), may have missed the moral issues that other Americans regarded as decisive, but this does not make him any less of an artist.
In a hundred years, it may be that the 2004 campaign will be remembered not so much for the result as for the fact that it gave occasion to some of the finest musical performances on record. If they have the sense to sell the live records of Springsteen and friends' concerts, there is no doubt that it will remain as a defining moment of what popular music can achieve - aesthetically speaking. The mere thought of Springsteen and Browne duetting must have made any music lover, whatever their politics, enthusiastic; and in fact I am informed that every concert was attended by a sprinkling of polite but enthusiastic Bush voters.
That being the case, the conservative columnists who have taken it on themselves to mock the great musician for his political choices have only underlined their smallness. And I think that the future of American conservatism will be determined by whether this sort of vindictive, ignorant, tone-deaf shower is or is not seen to be its typical face rather than a rancorous fringe.
