The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel--as it is wont to do with anyone who has spent more than 24 hours in Wisconsin--has an article on David Zucker's new movie. (He's from Shorewood, don'cha know?)
Zucker claims that he didn't leave the Democratic Party inasmuch as it left him.
Hogwash.
He's having the adult equivalent of a teenage rebellion. (Well, he did do the Airplane and Naked Gun movies.)
As someone who grew up in Milwaukee, I should explain Shorewood, or at least my perception of it:
Shorewood is a very close-in suburb of Milwaukee (which itself has Los Angeles styled borders, you're going in and out of it all the time), and is on the Southern part of what is called the North Shore. The North Shore is basically the rich/richer part of the Greater Milwaukee area. Shorewood stands out a bit from its fellow North Shore neighbours, because it is very close to the City of Milwaukee, and has more of street life, culture (UW-Milwaukee is next door), and just general cool.
I like to think of Shorewood as the polar opposite of my hometown, Mequon (which is also on the North Shore--the Northern border of it, coincidentally), but to put it in Manhattan terms: Shorewood is the Upper West Side, where the prevailing atmosphere is educated and liberal.
If that's the prevailing atmosphere in Shorewood, then it would be very rebellious to become an arch-conservative Republican--even if you haven't lived in that environment for quite some time. That being said, I wound up a Socialist not so much as a response to the environment that I grew up in*, but by actually learning and experiencing the world around me and coming to the conclusion that it does not revolve around me and my income, but about the quality of life of those around me. It's possible that Zucker took the journey in the opposite direction.
* My father was a Republican (fiscal conservative, he believed that the social conservatives were beyond the pale, mostly because the social conservatives also tended to be the biggest bigots on the planet). My mother is a Centrist Democrat. I'm a Social Democrat. Centre-Right, Centre-Left, and Left all in one family.
What I find particularly amusing/tragic is how Zucker tries to explain his political (d)evolution:
“But I’m labeled a conservative now. Because I support smaller government, lower taxes and a strong military, all the things that JFK once espoused...But now you have to be a Republican to be in favor of those things.”
Apparently, Zucker seems to believe that we are still living with the USSR and the past 8 years have brought nothing but prosperity to the US. He also doesn't quite have a grasp on how Republicans actually increase the size of government, while Democrats tend to streamline it.
What's stupid is that he doesn't realise how dangerous his new gang is.
2 comments:
the part about there being two parties (the stupid party and the dangerous party) was amusing, but i don't think you can draw a neat little line between those two categories. in fact, most people would agree that george bush has been the stupidest *and* most dangerous president for the last 100 years.
Although there is something to be said for how far the core republican values are removed from the current policy, this should be nothing new to anybody.
But mostly this film looks like a weak attempt to counter the heavy-weight politico film makers like Moore and Aaron Russo that's making the waves, but how anyone can imagine anyone being swayed by propaganda like big military is beyond me. Right, let's continue to use $12 billion a month in Iraq and make a bunch of never-forget enemies and rekindle the cold war with the Soviets .. uh, I mean Russia.. that will be good for the future!
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