One of my all time favorite few seconds of cinema, ranking up
there with Charles
Foster Kane’s deathbed revelation and Bogie’s send off of Ilsa
Laszlo, is from Talladega Nights (2006) and best
tagged as “Don’t Put
that Evil on Me, Ricky Bobby.” By the way, I’m not alone;
typing only “don’t put th” into a search window
will direct you to the clip. What makes the scene memorable is the
ludicrous amount of time between when the “paralyzed” protagonist
stabs himself in the leg and then — tick, tick, tick — he finally
unleashes his scream.
Right now, I wonder if the country’s political consciousness is
hovering in a similar moment of suspended time. Recent events have
been no less subtle than a knife in the thigh, yet we too wait to
see if and when our political nerve system will be transmitting a
scream. Until then, the zeitgeist is quiet, the general public
carries on, while the opinion shapers remain detached and willfully
ignorant of the probable Great Obama Implosion of 2012.
It could happen at any moment. The president is credibly
linked in a new bestseller to use of campaign funds for hush money
payoffs… he’s been found to have lied — either then or now —
about his place of birth… he needlessly mocks the country by
presenting his biographical bona fides with the candor befitting a
three card monte hustler. He
objectifies and sexualizes his wife’s do-good fitness crusade.
And that’s just the lurid stuff. He’s a serial security breacher,
squandering access to the blabbing bad guys that has already been
prepaid in American blood and treasure… he’s cravenly politicized
Afghanistan and Iraq while cutting the military out of the decision
process… then there’s the mendacity of the health care legislation,
the worst economy since the Depression, and the reckless
acceleration towards January 2013
Taxmadgeddon that makes Thelma and Louise look
like defensive drivers. A good investigator will always notice the
single “dog that didn’t bark.” Here we have a mush of huskies that
aren’t howling. Who’s noticing?
The Obama un-masking will be similar to other historic
slow-cooking political disruptions. Teapot Dome, Hiss, Watergate,
Iran Contra, Whitewater, Flowers/Jones/Lewinsky all took time to
percolate. The public needs that time to process and respond to
those abstract reports and allegations. A change in public
sentiment requires a consensus understanding of the problem strong
enough to overwrite the existing cognitive framework of the
miscreant person or institution. Significantly, the two traumas
that were ultimately the most convulsive — Watergate and Lewinsky
— became radioactive not because of the damning fact set but
rather because the public couldn’t forgive a President for “lying.”
Still, in every case, there was that Ricky Bobby pause.
Until it happens, we won’t know if this current nightmare is
going to end with an implosion or a whimper. George Orwell
understood and dramatized how the natural state of the human
condition is a-historical, and how the context of national events
is provided — only as needed — by the powerful to secure their
own domination. “The truth” is never sufficient.
Are we now in that excruciating interlude between political
action and public reaction? Or will this turn out to be just
another ho-hum political sequence, one of those bells that now and
then rings, where few care and fewer understand — and no one looks
back?
Or, will we soon reach a moment of inflection where the 2008
data points reverse their polarity? Where we once saw youth and
energy, will we see inexperience? Will athleticism become
fecklessness, and exotic background become problematic if not
disqualifying? Will author become liar, as self-confidence becomes
reality impairment? Will the “good war” he said he’d fight become
the “lost war”?
This moment — so full of questions — can’t go on much longer.
For now, all we can do is nervously monitor the silence.
America, you’re not really paralyzed. And those of us
who love you… we’re waiting for that scream.
