{"id":28580,"date":"2014-11-08T09:48:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-08T14:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=28580"},"modified":"2014-11-10T07:31:27","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T12:31:27","slug":"the-johnny-bravo-of-american-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/11\/08\/the-johnny-bravo-of-american-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Johnny Bravo” of American politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

From this week’s Goldberg File<\/em> email newsletter [Update<\/strong>: it’s now online<\/a>]:<\/p>\n

In Men in Dark Times<\/em> Hannah Arendt says, \u201cStorytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it … it brings about consent and reconciliation with things as they really are.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, naturally, brings to mind that great episode of the Brady Bunch<\/em> \u201cAdios, Johnny Bravo<\/a>.\u201d This YouTube video<\/a> summarizes the tale expertly, but since you might be at work and are reluctant to get caught watching Brady Bunch<\/em> videos (again) at the office, I will summarize. Greg Brady, scion of House Brady, is offered a contract from a record label. At first he is reluctant to sign on because he\u2019s a loyal member of his family band. But the record producers convince him that he owes it to himself to be all he can be. They want him to become the new smash-hit sensation \u201cJohnny Bravo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role of Johnny Bravo comes complete with a sensational matador-themed costume and a rented gaggle of winsome young ladies ready to tear it off on command (very much like the job of senior editor here at National Review<\/em>). The producers promise that he won\u2019t simply be in<\/em> the Top 20, he\u2019ll be<\/em> the Top 20. \u201cJust sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride,\u201d they tell him. It would be a tempting offer for any young man.<\/p>\n

After much soul-searching, Greg agrees to become Johnny Bravo. That is, until he finds out that the producers don\u2019t much care about his musical talent. Through the wizardry of music production — long before the advent of AutoTune — they twist his vocal stylings to what the market wants, not what Greg\u2019s muse has on offer. \u201cThat\u2019s not the way I<\/em> sound!\u201d Greg protests.<\/p>\n

The producer retorts, \u201cYou? Now c\u2019mon baby, don\u2019t get caught up on an ego trip. I mean who cares how you<\/em> sound? We\u2019re after the<\/em> sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t care about my sound, what do you need me for? Greg asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you fit the suit,\u201d another producer responds.<\/p>\n

Putting the O in BravO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forgive me for committing the error of defining my meaning. But Barack Obama fits the suit.<\/p>\n

In my USA Today<\/em> column this week, I argued that Barack Obama is indisputably good at one thing: Getting elected president of the United States.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it. He\u2019s not good at being<\/em> president of the United States. He\u2019s not good at being the head of his party. He\u2019s not good at diplomacy or public policy or managing large bureaucracies. He has no new ideas. But man did he fit the suit, metaphorically speaking.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I realize this runs against the grain of a lot of right-wing thinking — that Obama is really a secret Muslim-Marxist radical biding his time to seize the means of production and impose sharia. Well, the clock is running out on that theory.<\/p>\n

I have no doubt that Obama\u2019s more left-wing in his heart than he is in his speeches and public priorities. But my basic point is that Obama doesn\u2019t realize that his electoral success was a function of the media age we are in. He fit the part. He said the right words. He was an anti-George W. Bush when lots of people desperately wanted an anti-George W. Bush. He was black, cool, and eggheady in just the right way. Voting for Obama made lots of people feel good about themselves \u2014 which is a terrible reason to vote for anybody. Media elites and average Americans alike were seduced because they wanted to be seduced. <\/p>\n

They \u2014 starting with Obama himself \u2014 believed the hype. And he still does.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s like modern-day Johnny Bravo lip-synching an auto-tuned song about \u201ckeeping it real\u201d and he thinks he\u2019s actually keeping it real<\/em>. He goes around talking about how much he hates talking points and sound-bites, how much he loathes cynicism and ideology. And yet, he does all this in talking points and sound-bites packed like verbal clown cars with ideology and cynicism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From this week’s Goldberg File email newsletter [Update: it’s now online]: In Men in Dark Times Hannah Arendt says, \u201cStorytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it … it brings about consent and reconciliation with things as they really are.\u201d This, naturally, brings to mind that great episode of the Brady Bunch \u201cAdios, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,28,53,13],"tags":[263,158,200,101],"class_list":["post-28580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humour","category-media","category-politics","category-usa","tag-1970s","tag-barackobama","tag-music","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-7qY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28580"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28622,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28580\/revisions\/28622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}