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Now, I was very impressed with Kerry. I particularly like the not-so-subtle passive aggression: "And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States." Zing! Who could he be referring to?
I also like the fact that he ended with a science riff. This is the kind of guy who will pay attention when his eggheads talk, and remember it later in the episode, a la MacGuyver or the Bloodhound Gang.
But what I'd really like to talk about is the music, as it reflects the spirit of the speech.
Intro, No Retreat, No Surrender: Relentlessly optimistic, this number from the oft politically misinterpreted "Born in the USA" is a semantic smorgasbord. Memes in play include: 1. Vietnam, 2. High school garage band (concerned with the "war outside still ragin'"), 3. Dreaming about the future, 4. Empathy with soldiers. The prime work of the song (and the album as a whole) is to deflate the perceived division between those who served in Vietnam and the anti-war movement, and does so in an idiom unmistakenly associated with the Reagan era.
Outro, "It's a Beautiful Day" Lyrics are a little vaguer here, but we all know Bono, and we can just assume the sentement is properly liberal and preachy. But ooh, it does get transcendent in that bridge, doesn't it? "See the Bedouin fires at night/See the oil fields at first light/And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth/After the flood all the colors came out." Holy Whitman, Batman! We're flying through space here! But it's all Biblical too. It's Biblical space. Biblical space with a hopeful, conciliatory message.
Now, these songs aren't cool per se. They're only moderately less square than "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." But this is politics, not a Williamsburg loft party, and the country's not ready for a platform to be introduced with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Rhetorically, though, it's brill.
By placing Kerry's speech within this triptych, the writers suggest that a) the cultural divide of the sixties is reconcilable, through service, optimism, and empathy, and that this was an ongoing trend even in the sixties themselves, b) that this trend is embodied in Kerry's own dual nature as anti-war activist and vietnam war hero, versus the current administration, which represents a dividing force and the worst of both sides (tax-and-spend draft-dodging warmongers), and c) that the present moment offers an opportunity to reconcile both sides, reclaim kennedy-era optimism, and in doing so, reconcile ourselves with the world.
Neat, huh?
Comments
Well spoken, and thoroughly optimistic. In addition to your spot-on analysis and excellent use of the word triptych in this context, I have to say that I've never heard a group like Black Eyed Peas perform at a DNC, (I guess the equivalent in 1992 would have been De La Soul if the DNC had the balls) nor the Van Hagar loop that played after the Kerry speech. Although, I probably would have preferred something off of Women and Children First with David Lee Roth.
I'm just a optimistic about this campaign and it was the first time I heard signs of promise from these candidates and this party in a long time.
What I can't figure out for the life of me (besides why people still trust the words coming out of President Bush's mouth) is how the polling model continues to be so skewed in the face of Fahrenheit 9/11 and the DNC. Michael Moore provided a great explanation, but I'll take it with a grain of salt until November.
He mentioned the 50/50/50 enigma, where the media reports a 50%/50% neck and neck race between Kerry and Bush, but because the polling models only count, "likely voters," they immediately exclude people who haven't voted in the last election. In Moore's words, "They only poll people who have consistently voted in previous elections. But the other 50% of the country doesn't vote. If they wanted to be honest, they could say it's a 50/50/50 country because they never ask the other 50% how they feel. And I got to tell you, this is what they are in for a big surprise. Come November 2. The other 50%--(applause)--the other 50, you can't compare this election to any election before September 11, 2001." (http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=113)
Kudos to Big Mike, and everytime I hear the polls not claiming a huge "bounce" I think of Big Mike's analysis. I hope he's right, for all of our sakes.
-m
Cool thanks for posting Mike -- And yeah, I'm a little frustrated with the polling numbers too. But another point made is that undecided voters almost always vote against the incumbent, especially in a close race. If that holds true here, Kerry should have a comfortable margin.
