ozarque (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ozarque) wrote,@ 2007-11-23 07:56:00 |
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Recommended link; political language...
Recommended: a long and interesting article by Ariel Levy titled "Don't laugh," about Al Franken's political campaign and the question of whether politics and comedy can co-exist, at http://nymag.com/news/features/4029
"Another transformation seems to be happening to Franken on the campaign trail. In the past, he's often been portrayed as an angry grouch, and indeed his books are as depressing as they are funny in their meticulous detailing of America's woes. But all this exposure to the youth of today-and media consultants-has had an uplifting effect on Franken. 'A lot of the kids I was talking to, the freshmen were like 11 years old when Bush became president, and they don't remember having a president who was articulate; they don't remember that the federal government actually could work; they don't remember when America was a really well-respected country,' Franken tells me later. 'And I felt my job was to tell them, No, no, no! We used to be the leader of the world and we can be again! We're the country that went to the moon and we're the country that beat Fascism and Communism and rebuilt Europe and we're the country that's mapped the human genome and we're the country that had enough juice left over to invent the Internet and rock and roll, you know? I mean, we're a great country! So I found myself sort of cheerleading. I was giving not just them but myself a pep talk. Sometimes I say the reason I'm running is my dad's generation was the Greatest Generation, and I just don't want ours to be the Worst Generation.' He laughs his bullfrog laugh. 'I wanna actually be able to look at my kids and say I tried my damnedest to get us up to the Mediocre Generation. I really did everything I could.' "
Recommended: a long and interesting article by Ariel Levy titled "Don't laugh," about Al Franken's political campaign and the question of whether politics and comedy can co-exist, at http://nymag.com/news/features/4029
"Another transformation seems to be happening to Franken on the campaign trail. In the past, he's often been portrayed as an angry grouch, and indeed his books are as depressing as they are funny in their meticulous detailing of America's woes. But all this exposure to the youth of today-and media consultants-has had an uplifting effect on Franken. 'A lot of the kids I was talking to, the freshmen were like 11 years old when Bush became president, and they don't remember having a president who was articulate; they don't remember that the federal government actually could work; they don't remember when America was a really well-respected country,' Franken tells me later. 'And I felt my job was to tell them, No, no, no! We used to be the leader of the world and we can be again! We're the country that went to the moon and we're the country that beat Fascism and Communism and rebuilt Europe and we're the country that's mapped the human genome and we're the country that had enough juice left over to invent the Internet and rock and roll, you know? I mean, we're a great country! So I found myself sort of cheerleading. I was giving not just them but myself a pep talk. Sometimes I say the reason I'm running is my dad's generation was the Greatest Generation, and I just don't want ours to be the Worst Generation.' He laughs his bullfrog laugh. 'I wanna actually be able to look at my kids and say I tried my damnedest to get us up to the Mediocre Generation. I really did everything I could.' "
