CLINT EASTWOOD AND THE EMPTY CHAIR
“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” — Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
This isn’t the place to attack or defend my Presidential candidate of choice.
That said, to let last night’s comments from actor / director Clint Eastwood go without comment would be, well, an opportunity missed to discuss some deep and painful things.
Mr. Eastwood addressed the Republican National Convention right at the top of the prime-time hour set aside for Republican Party Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. I’m not sure what the thinking was, but from what I’ve read today on the web, twitter, and print about Eastwood’s one-man ramble / skit / monologue, it appears Americans were left collectively scratching our heads.
I’ll let the Academy judge the acting and script. I was more interested in what message 82-year-old Mr. Eastwood’s monologue sent. And my reaction — a negative one — centered on the empty chair at which Mr. Eastwood’s comments were directed.
We were supposed to imagine President Obama in that chair, being addressed by Clint Eastwood in an interrogative manner. This Invisible Obama (hereafter referred to as “I. O.”) was not directly heard from, but we gathered from Mr. Eastwood’s give and take with I. O. that the Transparent President was dropping the “F” bomb (among other expletives).
I. O. was definitely not very articulate, and had no good answers for what he was being asked by his interrogator.
On the other hand, the only one who could hear what I. O. was saying was Mr. Eastwood.
And that brings me to my own little story.
This past April, I visited my birthplace in Montana to spend a few weeks caretaking my Mother (since deceased). While there, I had a conversation with someone else I love very much. I knew his stance politically, and spent most of one day together with him carefully avoiding that subject. But finally he cornered me and peppered me with a number of questions…
which HE then answered for me. I was at first amused, then bewildered, as his questions became more and more pointed, his voice more shrill, and the answers of the I. T. (Invisible Trott) more ridiculous. It was a shocking experience for me; I was there, but I was not part of the conversation. My views and understanding were — in a plurality of senses — invisible. I was being caricatured in my own presence, but without humor or apparent consciousness on the part of the one doing that caricature.
This went on basically for 30 minutes to 45 minutes — maybe even more. And through the experience I entered into a level of near-despair about language, words, and meaning. I did indeed feel invisible, diminished by another person to a level of invisibility. My own world of thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, and the articulation I would have offered regarding those things had I been asked was, quite literally, unseen to him. Further, it seemed apparent to me that he did not want to see those things, therefore, he did not want to truly see me.
So back to Mr. Eastwood and his Invisible Obama. As I watched Clint Eastwood’s eleven-plus minute presentation, I found myself feeling that familiar way, wronged even though it was not me being made the equivalent of an empty chair. I had been through that, I thought to myself.
And then it struck me that the “I” in I. O. could mean “Invisible” but might also mean “Imaginary.” An Imaginary Obama, an Imaginary Trott, is a convenient way to avoid interaction with the A. O. or A. T. — “Actual Obama” or “Actual Trott.”
And the great thing about a discussion with an Invisible, Imaginary ideological opponent is this: You can always win the argument convincingly.
I began these thoughts with a quote from my favorite novel, Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.” In that novel, Ellison explores what it means to exist within a culture that systematically finds ways to make the visible into the unseen. The racial context is unavoidable and primary, as it has always been in American history and may remain for decades to come. But all of us have the capacity to render one another invisible. It is done by talking, literally or figuratively, to an empty chair. It demeans the one to whom we do it.
And in the end, it demeans us who do it. We ourselves become the caricature, the cartoon, the straw man, disappearing into the smallness of our own projected Imaginary Other. It is we who become invisible.
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A friend points out another writer who also made the literary connection I did: Clint Eastwood and The Invisible Man
Whoa. Those last 2 lines got it. Dialog is key. How to build bridges is the question.
Jon,
It’s kinda’ hard to take any left-winger’s moaning, moralizing pontifications about Eastwood’s outrageously wonderful and accurate speech seriously in view left’s incessant applause for the daily mock-a-thon delivered to conservative Republicans by Stewart, Colbert, Maddow & Co.
Would you like some cheese to go with that whine?
Ron, you either get it or you don’t. I cannot help you in that department, I’m afraid. What I said in this piece is not something left or right. It is either true or false. You choose.
Jon,
I choose that it is a thinly-disguised partisan attack, posturing as a moral homily.
Ron, you may feel that was a clever response, but I suggest it is not a deep nor thoughtful response. You’re better than that.
“The racial context is unavoidable and primary” Is that the best that writer can do? Mr Eastwood is 82 Yrs. old and this was unscripted. He is a good man and not a racist in any manner. He was there representing a few like minded Hollywood types as does the other side.
He is also not a politician so he got a bit tounge tied when he pointed out the failings of the man who is suppose to be leading our country. But to call him of all people a racist!! My God check what he has done for race relations.
I made no comment pro or con regarding Clint Eastwood’s own racial views. The comments you are reacting to were in reference to Ellison’s book, Invisible Man.
The racial history of America is, for white folks, a history we do not “get” in our guts the way those of a darker persuasion get it. That our current social conversation is tremendously influenced by the undertow of our racial history is, to me, undeniable. Artists at play in the realm of symbols and meanings should keep that in mind.
Somebody should have vetted Clint a little better, but I’m willing to bet they were too starstruck and in love with the idea of Dirty Harry taking Obama down a few pegs, to comprehend that they were going to let an 82 year old man on prime-time ramble on without a script like that. Clint’s a great pianist, a fine actor and director, but with this appearance, he just looked old and confused. That’s not a good look for a former action hero.
Agreed. Tangent alert, as I reveal a little-known aspect of my personal tastes in movies. Eastwood’s one of only three actors whose presence in a movie virtually guaranteed over the years I’d watch it (the other two being Meryl Streep and Humphrey Bogart). “High Plains Drifter” is probably my favorite. A personal note on his 1974 “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”; he filmed it in Montana, including portions in my childhood hometown of Fort Benton. A Junior in high school, I happened to drive by one day only a few minutes after the day’s shoot had ended. I looked into my rearview mirror and directly into the eyes of Mr. Eastwood. He was driving a beautiful Pontiac Trans Am right behind me… and so it went all the way along Front Street until I turned left and he turned right. Way more than you wanted to know. Ha!
You’re over-analyzing the empty chair. What did it mean? It mean that we’ve spent four years with a President that was essentially absent on the important issues that Clint was talking about. A President that for two of those years, had total control of the Congress and the Senate. A President that, while he admittedly inherited a mess, only made things worse. Or did nothing at all in other cases. A President that is now running for re-election by saying “In the next four years, I can actually get to all of the stuff I said I was going to do in the first four.”
Ted, the FOX News talking points are represented on FOX; we needn’t repeat them here. Your unsupported assertions are part and parcel of the very invisibility problems I touched on in the article.
Ha! Typical response when nothing else can be said I guess. I don’t watch Fox. I watch the President.
No, you don’t watch the President. That’s — again — the point. You watch the empty chair you prefer to the President.
Ted, I give you only the first 20 of the top 50 accomplishments that the president has had since taking office. Read the total 50 here, then come back and refute them factually instead of using the empty “he’s done nothing” rhetoric: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/march_april_2012/features/obamas_top_50_accomplishments035755.php
1. Passed Health Care Reform: After five presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed the Affordable Care Act (2010). It will cover 32 million uninsured Americans beginning in 2014 and mandates a suite of experimental measures to cut health care cost growth, the number one cause of America’s long-term fiscal problems.
2. Passed the Stimulus: Signed $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to spur economic growth amid greatest recession since the Great Depression. Weeks after stimulus went into effect, unemployment claims began to subside. Twelve months later, the private sector began producing more jobs than it was losing, and it has continued to do so for twenty-three straight months, creating a total of nearly 3.7 million new private-sector jobs.
3. Passed Wall Street Reform: Signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to re-regulate the financial sector after its practices caused the Great Recession. The new law tightens capital requirements on large banks and other financial institutions, requires derivatives to be sold on clearinghouses and exchanges, mandates that large banks provide “living wills” to avoid chaotic bankruptcies, limits their ability to trade with customers’ money for their own profit, and creates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (now headed by Richard Cordray) to crack down on abusive lending products and companies.
4. Ended the War in Iraq: Ordered all U.S. military forces out of the country. Last troops left on December 18, 2011.
5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan: From a peak of 101,000 troops in June 2011, U.S. forces are now down to 91,000, with 23,000 slated to leave by the end of summer 2012. According to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the combat mission there will be over by next year.
6. Eliminated Osama bin laden: In 2011, ordered special forces raid of secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which the terrorist leader was killed and a trove of al-Qaeda documents was discovered.
7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry: In 2009, injected $62 billion in federal money (on top of $13.4 billion in loans from the Bush administration) into ailing GM and Chrysler in return for equity stakes and agreements for massive restructuring. Since bottoming out in 2009, the auto industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. In 2011, the Big Three automakers all gained market share for the first time in two decades. The government expects to lose $16 billion of its investment, less if the price of the GM stock it still owns increases.
8. Recapitalized Banks: In the midst of financial crisis, approved controversial Treasury Department plan to lure private capital into the country’s largest banks via “stress tests” of their balance sheets and a public-private fund to buy their “toxic” assets. Got banks back on their feet at essentially zero cost to the government.
9. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: Ended 1990s-era restriction and formalized new policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for the first time.
10. Toppled Moammar Gaddafi: In March 2011, joined a coalition of European and Arab governments in military action, including air power and naval blockade, against Gaddafi regime to defend Libyan civilians and support rebel troops. Gaddafi’s forty-two-year rule ended when the dictator was overthrown and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011. No American lives were lost.
11. Told Mubarak to Go: On February 1, 2011, publicly called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to accept reform or step down, thus weakening the dictator’s position and putting America on the right side of the Arab Spring. Mubarak ended thirty-year rule when overthrown on February 11.
12. Reversed Bush Torture Policies: Two days after taking office, nullified Bush-era rulings that had allowed detainees in U.S. custody to undergo certain “enhanced” interrogation techniques considered inhumane under the Geneva Conventions. Also released the secret Bush legal rulings supporting the use of these techniques.
13. Improved America’s Image Abroad: With new policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion toward the U.S. (and the corresponding loss of “soft power”) during the Bush years. From 2008 to 2011, favorable opinion toward the United States rose in ten of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, with an average increase of 26 percent.
14. Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending: As part of the 2010 health care reform bill, signed measure ending the wasteful decades-old practice of subsidizing banks to provide college loans. Starting July 2010 all students began getting their federal student loans directly from the federal government. Treasury will save $67 billion over ten years, $36 billion of which will go to expanding Pell Grants to lower-income students.
15. Created Race to the Top: With funds from stimulus, started $4.35 billion program of competitive grants to encourage and reward states for education reform.
16. Boosted Fuel Efficiency Standards: Released new fuel efficiency standards in 2011 that will nearly double the fuel economy for cars and trucks by 2025.
17. Coordinated International Response to Financial Crisis: To keep world economy out of recession in 2009 and 2010, helped secure from G-20 nations more than $500 billion for the IMF to provide lines of credit and other support to emerging market countries, which kept them liquid and avoided crises with their currencies.
18. Passed Mini Stimuli: To help families hurt by the recession and spur the economy as stimulus spending declined, signed series of measures (July 22, 2010; December 17, 2010; December 23, 2011) to extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.
19. Began Asia “Pivot”: In 2011, reoriented American military and diplomatic priorities and focus from the Middle East and Europe to the Asian-Pacific region. Executed multipronged strategy of positively engaging China while reasserting U.S. leadership in the region by increasing American military presence and crafting new commercial, diplomatic, and military alliances with neighboring countries made uncomfortable by recent Chinese behavior.
20. Increased Support for Veterans: With so many soldiers coming home from Iraq and Iran with serious physical and mental health problems, yet facing long waits for services, increased 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs budget by 16 percent and 2011 budget by 10 percent. Also signed new GI bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, and provided multiple tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans.
Kool-aid any one?
Frankly I loved it! I voted for Obama in good faith four years ago and I have seen nothing but smoke and mirrors and non stop campaingning ever since. More abortion, taxes, flipflop on ‘gay marriage”–and you of all people should not forget the lockdown that happened when the almighty came for his birthday celebration. I have watched and heard all the lies–seen my own daughter and her friends sturggle for jobs–and watched others give up looking in dispair. I for one, won’t be fooled again! After watching women going to the RNC dressed as viginas, and hearing God being booed at the DNC-not to mention the disertion of Israel-I am not buying anything he has to say anymore! I and MANY others like me have had enough. I don’t agree with some points of Mr. Romeny’s theology–but consider the alturnitive. I value my freedom of speech and my right to speak of my faith whenever and where ever I please with out fear. I value life. I value God’s plan for marriage and family. I am not drinking the kool-aid any longer.
Liz…. I’ve heard you be articulate before… but the above stuff sounds like wholesale clips from Limbaugh and/or FAUX Snooze. We can do better than that level of conversation.
No Jon–I am talking from personal experince and that of my friends and neighbors.
I found Clint Eastwood’s performance rather bizarre, ill-informed, and a sad commentary on the state of affairs.
It is funny Liz brought up Kool-Aid. Just moments ago on everyblock someone accused me of drinking the Kool-Aid.
Is that the latest talking point on Fox News or something? Or just a coincidence.