October 11, 2016
Casablanca
It was A Face in the Crowd, another Kazan, this time about a charismatic hick dubbed “Lonesome Rhodes” who is (willingly) molded into a Will Rogers”meets”Father Coughlin mass-media sensation and then a populist political force; the amoral cad is about to step into the newly created Cabinet position of “Secretary for National Morale” before his downfall.
“I come from a branch of conservatism that is nervous about excessive political enthusiasm,” Goldberg said by way of explaining his choice.
The Founding Fathers, he continued, set up a system of checks and balances to “dilute” the people’s populist “passions,” to, hopefully, prevent benighted average Americans from putting a Lonesome Rhodes in the White House.
In other words: Both TCM guest programmers, the liberal and the conservative, used their airtime to advertise their disapproval of “mobs” and “populism.”
Now: Lonesome Rhodes” ambitions are shattered by”60-year-old spoiler alert”a “hot mic.” (Watch the scene here.) And mere days after Goldberg’s TCM appearance, Trump’s “pussy” tapes were released.
Goldberg’s reaction was predictable:
Trump is “a pig” and you”re all idiots.
Perhaps. I do know that tonight, millions will tune in to the second Trump/Clinton debate, but my nerves can”t take it. It’s October, so TCM is running Halloween programming, and every Sunday is “Frankenstein Night.” So instead, I”ll be (re)watching some lesser Universals, House of or Son of or Ghost of“I really don”t care.
And as much as he despises Trump, Goldberg will be one of those millions tuning in out of duty, with a combination of disgust and delight. Still unable to admit that this “pig” and his “populism” would never have come this far if not for…yes, yes, the “Mainstream Media” and elite intellectuals like Leon Wieseltier, but”as has been widely and rightfully noted“Professional Conservatives, too. Like Jonah Goldberg.
Who’s afraid of the pitchfork mob, all right, but still doesn”t understand that he’s one of the Doctors.
