This is an entertainment column in a political publication. Over the decades I have been opining here, politics has truly become popular entertainment. And more and more entertainers have become politicians or tease their fans with talk of running; no, I do not want The Rock or Matthew McConaughey to throw their hats into the ring for the 2024 presidential race. One would think that the disastrous and distressing presidency of a deranged reality TV star would have squelched the notion of famous entertainers occupying the Oval Office. But instead it’s only ginned up desires to run by more of them. Great …
On the flip side of this troubling equation is how some politicians have been behaving like entertainers. Case in point: The loathsome Marjorie Taylor Greene. Her outrageous statements play like entertainment bits, and have the double wallop of delighting the far right/MAGA cult with the red meat they crave while providing us of the more leftist and progressive persuasion horrifying humor along with a shot of outrage at her brazen nastiness. And g
A gal pal who is a dedicated daily watcher of “The View” was just as avid about watching the hearings held by the House’s January 6th Committee. And now their report is available through multiple book sources.
And right on time comes the perfect companion piece: Robert Draper’s “Weapons of Mass Delusion: When The Republican Party Lost Its Mind.” Think of it as bringing a vibrant Technicolor adjunct to the B&W of the report. It focuses on how House Republicans such as Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Goetz and Lauren Boebert have taken MAGA mania, Trumpian insults and slanders and Qanon-style conspiracy fantasies – especially the Big Lie that Trump won in 2020 – to even wilder and higher levels of unreality if not sheer insanity between that presidential election and the recent midterms.
Disclosure: Draper’s a friend. Not that touting him is in any way simply logrolling someone I know. Since first getting to know him sometime in the early 1990s, when he was a Texas Monthly writer with one book under his wing, a history of Rolling Stone magazine, he’s risen to become one of America’s premier political journalists and a bestselling author, currently a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. Much as I might attest to his credibility and skill, his achievements underscore that far better.
We initially bonded through family connections with his grandfather, Leon Jaworski, best known as the Watergate Special Prosecutor. My oldest brother summer-clerked for the Fulbright & Jaworski firm while in law school and later joined and rose to partner. The Leon connection gives you an idea about how Robert so deftly manages the outsider/insider thicket of top-level political journalism, and indicates his high-level of integrity.
He was at and around the Capitol on that ill-starred January day, and has long been reporting on both the Congress (publishing two books about the House of Representatives) and the Presidency (“Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush”). One aspect of his work that I admire is how eminently fair he is to any and all subjects, even giving someone I loathe, Greene, admirably impartial coverage. As he fills in her background, one can see a human more than just the near-caricature of her public profile. Yet even with Draper’s fairness and judicious reporting, he nails how flawed and twisted she and her fellow MAGA rabble rousers are.
His smart short history of rare US voter fraud set up against recent accusations demolishes any notions that our major elections could be rigged or stolen. And as I write this on the day after the first three-time smackdown of Kevin McCarthy’s Speaker of the House bid, the GOP mania Draper explores seems to have grown even more pronounced. Looks like the House won’t get anything substantive done over the next two years …
The state of the nation and the planet are so strange and dire I’d probably prefer to read books that can take me far away from current affairs, something I get far more than enough of as a daily news junkie. But if I am going to read about today’s politics in a book, Draper is my most trusted reporter, observer and truth teller.
Documentary Film: “The Automat” – I was utterly enthralled by a childhood visit to the Horn & Hardart Automat across the street from Grand Central Station in New York City. This affectionate and historically rich doc is as delightful as feeding nickels into a slot to open a small door and get a fresh slice of pie.
Documentary Series: “George Carlin’s American Dream” – Numerous times in recent strange years have folks said to me, “I wish George Carlin were still here,” of course to comment in the madness. This two-parter on HBO reminds of how funny and on target he was as traces his comedic development and career with commentary by family, friends, associates and fellow comedian admirers.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email robpatterson054@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2023
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us