If there really is a film community outside of the premiere/festival cocktail circuit, then today makes me proud to be a part of it. The reason: Tom Gilroy.
A talented
actor-writer-director and also a friend and colleague, Tom has written the most impassioned, intelligent, and troubling political essay about U.S. politics I've seen in a long time at
The Huffington Post. The piece, titled "'White House in Chaos' & Other Utter Horseshit," excoriates the Democratic party for lazily taking credit for the recent "setbacks" within the Bush administration, which Gilroy persuasively argues aren't really setbacks at all.
A sample: "As long as Democrats and their well-fed punditocracy measure Bush, et al with a yardstick of morality, popularity or ethics, they will never recapture the majority, and here's why; Bush, et al aren't driven by morality, popularity, or ethics. They're driven by money.
"You can almost deduce what Rove will tell them to do next by simply asking yourself what would be best for the rich. But ask yourself what would any normal person do when their egregious gluttony, mendacity and utter scorn for the common man was exposed and you'll find the Bushies actions baffling. You'll wait for their humble confession until you're blue in the face—uninsured at an underfunded emergency room. Judge them by their drive to get at even more of our public resources and money, and suddenly you'll recognize they're still a well oiled machine.
"So they don't 'Reel With Frustration' or 'Rethink Their Message' or 'Try to Recapture the Public Mood,' that's just delusional journalists waxing poetic over how a decent person would behave. But these people aren't decent, they're crooks, and crooks don’t give a shit about you seeing them for what they really are. They don't care what you see as long as they're getting you’re money.
"But 'On the Brink of Collapse?' 'A Crack in the Empire?' 'Running Scared?' 'Drowning in an Ethical Quagmire?' 'Crisis of Leadership?' 'Humbled by the Damage to Their Legacy?'
"Yeah, sure.
"They're so humbled they just last week passed landmark changes gutting Florida's Medicaid and Medicare programs, to be used as a model for other red states so their Republican governors can appear fiscally responsible. So you crippled grandmother better not exceed her spending cap next year, or she's shit out of luck; her dog food rations will have to go up to 3 meals a week just to pay for her meds. Boy, thank God the GOP's been humbled by the ethical quagmire.
"They're so humiliated by their treasonous lies and media intimidation in the lead-up to the illegal war, they just nominated a raving puritan lunatic to the Supreme Court, a brown-shirted lemming so in thrall of corporate power and totalitarian government control he makes Maggie Thatcher look like a feminazi. Running scared!"
Read the full post
here. Judging from the huge response in the comments section, it looks like Tom may have hit a nerve. Let's hope so.
# posted by Matthew Ross @ 11/06/2005 09:13:00 PM
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