As we all may or may not know, The Democratic National Convention kicks off next week in Charlotte, NC with several guest speakers slated to appear. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the things that were said at the Republican National Convention this week. I'm particularly interested to see how they respond to the damn fool known as Clint Eastwood.
If you don't know what happened, here's the gist of it. Eastwood came out as a surprise speaker at The Republican National Convention with an empty chair and proceeded to pretend to speak to an invisible President Obama in a very disrespectful and degrading tone. He even went so far as to pretend that the invisible President used the F-word twice during their exchange.
As bad as that was, what really set me off about his whole appearance was when he said "We own this country", while pointing at the people in the room and it was received with thunderous applause.
The question I have for you Mr. Eastwood, is Who is the "we" you were referring to when you said "WE own this country"? Is it the descendants of Native Americans whose ancestors were here first and doing just fine living off the land until the Europeans showed up and pilfered its resources?
Or is the "we" you were referring to the descendants of slaves who were forced to come to this country and work, yet politicians so conveniently keep lumping them into their "we are a nation of immigrants" rhetoric?
Who exactly is the "We" Clint?
Is the "we" the 23 million unemployed Americans who can't find work because President Bush allowed so many of our jobs to be outsourced to other countries? And not only did he not try to stop it, but he gave the companies tax breaks that did so.
Or is it the 50 million uninsured Americans who still don't know if they will have healthcare coverage because The Republican controlled House has voted on 31 different occasions to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act but not one single time on President Obama's jobs bill?
Maybe it's the 46 million Americans living below the poverty line. Or the 40 million Americans who decided that rather than continue to toil in a broken educational system that is more concerned with standardized test scores than they are with children actually learning something, they'd try it on their own and are now relegated to minimum wage jobs that don't even come close to making ends meet. Children aren't standardized so why should their tests be?
Is the "we" you're referring to, the children and families of the men and women who died serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan? Undoubtedly WE have ALL made sacrifices of blood, sweat and tears for this great country of ours. So before you go throwing the word "we" around as if it pertains to some elite exclusive club, make sure it's understood who the "we" you're referring to is. Better yet, instead of using an empty chair to mock and disrespect the office of The President of the United States, why don't you put it to its intended use and sit your ass down?
You have always been a talented actor, but now you're a bit long in the tooth and maybe senility has reared its ugly head or perhaps all of the roles you've played all came out at one time during your speech in some kind of twisted Sybil sequel, who knows.
But, there's no wonder "The Outlaw Josie Wales". You'd Wail too if every time you drove your "Gran Torino" through Arizona, some big "Dirty, Harry(hairy)" cop stopped you and asked you for your papers. And while Mitt Romney may have a "Fistful of Dollars", "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" of it all is that most Americans are struggling just to earn "A Few Dollars More". Until you realize that, you and that empty chair can take a leap off of "Coogan's Bluff" and take "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" AKA Romney and Ryan with you. Please know that the Democrats and Oprah are going to turn you "Every Which Way But Loose", so you'd better apologize "Any Which Way You Can". When you decided to do that speech you put yourself "In The Line Of Fire" and for your antics you will be "Unforgiven". Your shenanigans certainly made a "Sudden Impact" but definitely not in the way that Mr. Romney might have hoped. So, perhaps you should drive your "Pink Cadillac" back across "The Bridges of Madison County". Because if you have any thoughts or inclinations that the Republican Party is going to have your back on this, unless you have a "Million Dollar Baby", you can "Hang 'Em High"!
So go ahead Clint, make all of our day and stop being a damn fool.
