The picture above is Andy Griffith starring in a movie titled ‘A Face In The Crowd,’ and presidential contender Donald Trump. I stole the picture from a piece at WaPo. A piece I encourage you to read. It is very thought-provoking! I would be very interested in your thoughts after you read the article and I have some I want to share after you’ve read it too.
I’ve watched the movie “A Face in the Crowd’ several times throughout my life. The main character Rhodes played by Andy Griffith reminded me of a televangelist that had the gift of the silver tongue – but the compassion of a snake.
The average person wants to hear someone with power say the things that they cannot say to their bosses – or to their bankers – or to the government.
People gravitate towards those folks with the loudest voices and if that person can pull off being a bully – then so be it.
In our current society – don’t ever doubt the power of being a celebrity. In my childhood years, it took people with real talent to become a celebrity.
In today’s America – anybody with a cell phone can take a selfie pic and/or make a stupid video on post it on social media – and they become an instant celebrity.
Our country is full of people who value quantity over quality. I think that comes from the fact we have corporations incessantly marketing their foreign-made crap 24/7 for the sheeple to buy.
But more than that – I grew up in the days when if an appliance broke down, you called a repair man and they fixed it. These same appliances are now being manufactured to not be able to repair them – just buy a new one because it is cheaper than trying to repair the broken.
And what isn’t broken within the first few years nowadays? I remember when products lasted and lasted for years….
That is why I think we have been conditioned to value quantity over quality.
Americans have a reputation for being shallow, arrogant, bullies and rude behavior.
Maybe that’s because our ignorance and arrogance have combined to make a really UGLY AMERICAN?
BTW – does anyone else remember the old shoe repair shops? It was one of the mainstays on the old Main Street in my town.
That same Main Street was filled with different Mom and Pop retail shops and restaurants. We didn’t have many corporate-owned stores or restaurants.
When Tea Party Mad Haters and Krazed Kristian Konservatives talk about wanting to go back to the good old days – okay, let’s go back to the Eisenhower days. Check out those tax rates and Eisenhower supported the rights of workers to unionize.
Hell – doctors made house calls back then and the churches were not Mega Corporations disguised as a church.
But – that’s not really what these TP and KKK folks yearn for – they really want things to go back to the days when certain people ‘over there’ knew their place – Blacks in the back of the bus, women kept in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant and Mexicans were the maids in the majority of white-owned homes throughout the Southwest.
“Publicity” at the core of both seems correct. And there are certainly other similarities, still it is all fiction to me. I can’t believe that Trump can carry the kind of majority that will be needed to elect him as President. At least I hope not. I can see him as the conservatives’ choice, knowing my lack of any regard for conservatives in general.
Don’t who said this first -bad publicity is better than no publicity.
Let’s face the sad facts – our country has allowed the media/corporations to dumb us down to the point where “The Jerry Springer Show” is still a big hit.
Bullies everywhere – violence and sex (always those two hand-in-hand) – and then people who believe they are above the laws – pretty much sums up the way our current society lives.
I do think the younger generation has values – but they are much more liberal than the Republicans want.
Which is why Trump is such a good fit for some of these folks – Trump says what we want to hear about the working middle class but Trump is not a wannabe preacher/televangelist.
I’ve said this before – I agree with Trump that illegal immigration issue needs to be addressed – but not with some damn fence.
That won’t stop any of these corporations who are knowingly hiring illegal immigrants to lower the pay rates of all other Americans.
I’m still not convinced that Trump won’t tell everyone it was all a game. A game, an elaborate hoax, to see just how horrible a candidate could be and still fool the voters. In fact, sometimes I have trouble accepting that Trump could really be as vulgar and racist and mean as he is behaving as a candidate. I don’t want to think people are really that crass.
Back to the article. I love a well-turned phrase. The author of this piece wrote, “He tells it like it is — or at least like the people thought it had once been, back in the gauzy time when things were good.” I wondered when that “gauzy time” was and I think it could have been a different point in time for each of us. Plus, it’s “gauzy” because we’re not living it any more and we can afford to gloss it over. Like you said, Indy, the time of Ike wasn’t what the right wingers remember it as being. And, Reagan certainly wasn’t the president they think he was either.
Another point in the piece the author is speaking about the movie and writes, “In a rare moment of self-doubt, Rhodes sees what’s happening: “All them millions of people doing what I tell them to — scares me.” Does anyone think it’s possible that Trump knows his limits or he is capable of being humble enough to know how disastrous a president he would be? I think his ego is bigger than life itself, he seems to eat up being the center of attention even if its negative attention.
Mainly what I think summed up what I took from the article were two quotes from Trump: “How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?”
If Trump is even nominated by the republicans (I can’t quite get so far as to imagine that he could win the presidency) then the answer to Trump’s question is “as stupid as you need us to be.”
BTW – Any of the Republicans will have us in a war – or two or three – within the first 6 months of their presidency.
Who do they think will be paying the taxes to pay for their wars?
Who do they think will be fighting and dying for their wars?
The fastest growing population in our country is the 85-plus folks. These are not the working folks and/or military fodder.
The poor and working poor are not exactly the best trained when it comes to fighting wars – unless you just give them all a damn gun and tell them to go stand in that front line.
I just don’t get the Republicans’ thinking………America has been dumbed down to the point where the most cartoonish carnival barker is looking like he is going to win the GOP nomination.
And as we saw with Obama – if the Republicans continue to hold majority in Congress – even the next Democratic president will not get much done without a damn fight on every issue.
But yet isn’t it nice to know we can still make taxpayers pay for the old Tea Party farts Viagra pills through their socialized medicine they hate so much.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
The picture above is Andy Griffith starring in a movie titled ‘A Face In The Crowd,’ and presidential contender Donald Trump. I stole the picture from a piece at WaPo. A piece I encourage you to read. It is very thought-provoking! I would be very interested in your thoughts after you read the article and I have some I want to share after you’ve read it too.
The movie that foretold the rise of Donald Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-movie-that-foretold-the-rise-of-donald-trump/2016/02/08/76358d7e-cb7c-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html
I’ve watched the movie “A Face in the Crowd’ several times throughout my life. The main character Rhodes played by Andy Griffith reminded me of a televangelist that had the gift of the silver tongue – but the compassion of a snake.
The average person wants to hear someone with power say the things that they cannot say to their bosses – or to their bankers – or to the government.
People gravitate towards those folks with the loudest voices and if that person can pull off being a bully – then so be it.
In our current society – don’t ever doubt the power of being a celebrity. In my childhood years, it took people with real talent to become a celebrity.
In today’s America – anybody with a cell phone can take a selfie pic and/or make a stupid video on post it on social media – and they become an instant celebrity.
Our country is full of people who value quantity over quality. I think that comes from the fact we have corporations incessantly marketing their foreign-made crap 24/7 for the sheeple to buy.
But more than that – I grew up in the days when if an appliance broke down, you called a repair man and they fixed it. These same appliances are now being manufactured to not be able to repair them – just buy a new one because it is cheaper than trying to repair the broken.
And what isn’t broken within the first few years nowadays? I remember when products lasted and lasted for years….
That is why I think we have been conditioned to value quantity over quality.
Americans have a reputation for being shallow, arrogant, bullies and rude behavior.
Maybe that’s because our ignorance and arrogance have combined to make a really UGLY AMERICAN?
BTW – does anyone else remember the old shoe repair shops? It was one of the mainstays on the old Main Street in my town.
That same Main Street was filled with different Mom and Pop retail shops and restaurants. We didn’t have many corporate-owned stores or restaurants.
When Tea Party Mad Haters and Krazed Kristian Konservatives talk about wanting to go back to the good old days – okay, let’s go back to the Eisenhower days. Check out those tax rates and Eisenhower supported the rights of workers to unionize.
Hell – doctors made house calls back then and the churches were not Mega Corporations disguised as a church.
But – that’s not really what these TP and KKK folks yearn for – they really want things to go back to the days when certain people ‘over there’ knew their place – Blacks in the back of the bus, women kept in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant and Mexicans were the maids in the majority of white-owned homes throughout the Southwest.
“Publicity” at the core of both seems correct. And there are certainly other similarities, still it is all fiction to me. I can’t believe that Trump can carry the kind of majority that will be needed to elect him as President. At least I hope not. I can see him as the conservatives’ choice, knowing my lack of any regard for conservatives in general.
Don’t who said this first -bad publicity is better than no publicity.
Let’s face the sad facts – our country has allowed the media/corporations to dumb us down to the point where “The Jerry Springer Show” is still a big hit.
Bullies everywhere – violence and sex (always those two hand-in-hand) – and then people who believe they are above the laws – pretty much sums up the way our current society lives.
I do think the younger generation has values – but they are much more liberal than the Republicans want.
Which is why Trump is such a good fit for some of these folks – Trump says what we want to hear about the working middle class but Trump is not a wannabe preacher/televangelist.
I’ve said this before – I agree with Trump that illegal immigration issue needs to be addressed – but not with some damn fence.
That won’t stop any of these corporations who are knowingly hiring illegal immigrants to lower the pay rates of all other Americans.
I’m still not convinced that Trump won’t tell everyone it was all a game. A game, an elaborate hoax, to see just how horrible a candidate could be and still fool the voters. In fact, sometimes I have trouble accepting that Trump could really be as vulgar and racist and mean as he is behaving as a candidate. I don’t want to think people are really that crass.
Back to the article. I love a well-turned phrase. The author of this piece wrote, “He tells it like it is — or at least like the people thought it had once been, back in the gauzy time when things were good.” I wondered when that “gauzy time” was and I think it could have been a different point in time for each of us. Plus, it’s “gauzy” because we’re not living it any more and we can afford to gloss it over. Like you said, Indy, the time of Ike wasn’t what the right wingers remember it as being. And, Reagan certainly wasn’t the president they think he was either.
Another point in the piece the author is speaking about the movie and writes, “In a rare moment of self-doubt, Rhodes sees what’s happening: “All them millions of people doing what I tell them to — scares me.” Does anyone think it’s possible that Trump knows his limits or he is capable of being humble enough to know how disastrous a president he would be? I think his ego is bigger than life itself, he seems to eat up being the center of attention even if its negative attention.
Mainly what I think summed up what I took from the article were two quotes from Trump: “How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?”
If Trump is even nominated by the republicans (I can’t quite get so far as to imagine that he could win the presidency) then the answer to Trump’s question is “as stupid as you need us to be.”
Maybe Trump has hit on our country’s worst trait – we are willing to cut off our nose to spite our face?
In other words – we really are that stupid….
BTW – Any of the Republicans will have us in a war – or two or three – within the first 6 months of their presidency.
Who do they think will be paying the taxes to pay for their wars?
Who do they think will be fighting and dying for their wars?
The fastest growing population in our country is the 85-plus folks. These are not the working folks and/or military fodder.
The poor and working poor are not exactly the best trained when it comes to fighting wars – unless you just give them all a damn gun and tell them to go stand in that front line.
I just don’t get the Republicans’ thinking………America has been dumbed down to the point where the most cartoonish carnival barker is looking like he is going to win the GOP nomination.
And as we saw with Obama – if the Republicans continue to hold majority in Congress – even the next Democratic president will not get much done without a damn fight on every issue.
But yet isn’t it nice to know we can still make taxpayers pay for the old Tea Party farts Viagra pills through their socialized medicine they hate so much.
Our priorities are all wrong…
One more thing – it’s been said on the news that the 2016 campaigns will reach the $1 billion mark…
THINK about this – that is $1 billion that is going to pay for what exactly?
Attack ads
Confetti
Hats
Parties
Booze to schmooze with?
Again – our priorities are all wrong…