-By Gary Krasner
A week ago Friday (July 24th), Hillary Clinton gave a press conference and said, about her email scandal, “we are all accountable to the American people to get the facts right, and I will do my part.”
Huh? Who’s “we.” And she will do HER PART to be accountable? There is no “we” in this violation of law, or in concealing from the president that she conducted State Department business on her private email server. SHE must be held accountable. That is her “part” in this matter, and no one else’s.
That weekend, I was catching up on season 4 of VEEP, starring Julia Louis Dreyfus. In season 4, she ascended to the presidency after the president was forced to resign from a scandal.
I saw a very close similarity in Julia’s character portrayal of President Selina Meyer to Hillary’s persona. Their styles match in some ways. Meyers frequently huddles with staff people to conjure up a message at a press conference which is undecipherable, unfathomable, nonsensical, and appropriately ambiguous. Essentially, it’s a non-statement statement to avoid being blamed for something. It means nothing and merely gives the impression that a response was issued, so we can all move on.
THAT comment Hillary made on Friday is typical of some of her prior comments. It’s rehearsed like Meyer’s; probably poll-tested like Meyer’s, and essentially doesn’t address the issue, or misstates the issue, or obfuscates it. And like Meyer’s, you can see that smirky gaze on Hillary’s face, that seems to suggest that she thinks she got away with averting accountability, because you see, “we are all accountable.”
In fact, it was Hillary’s remark that day, followed by that smirky smile, and that look of accomplishment after uttering such vague and ambiguous nonsense, which prompted me to see the similarity with Selina Meyer. Watch that HBO series and you will see our future if Clinton is elected president.
On the same weekend, one of the channels was playing Easy Money (1983), starring Rodney Dangerfield and Joe Pecsi.
Rodney plays baby photographer Montgomery “Monty” Capuletti, living in middle-class Staten Island. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Monahan, is willing to him her great fortune and high class Manhattan department store, but only if Monty gives up smoking and drinking.
Her scheming, smarmy right-hand man Clive Barlow (played by character actor Jeffrey Jones) does his best to undermine Monty’s resolve so the money and department store can instead be left to him. Jeffrey Jones, you’ll recall, was the school principal vainly hunting for Ferris Bueler, played by Matthew Broderick, in that legendary role as a truant high schooler.
Barlow looks down his nose at Monty. He views Monty to be a rube who can’t speak correctly or dress correctly, and that’s sufficient to try to exclude Monty from high society and from owning the store. But Rodney has a breakthrough, by coming out with a popular clothing line, with bowling shirts and baggy pants–“the Regular Guy look, it’s called.
That’s when it hit me: Donald Trump is Monty! The Republican Party and mainstream political pundits find Trump’s manner and speech low class–which only the common people appreciate. Trump is direct, blunt, undiplomatic, unsophisticated, and sometimes crude, like Monty is. And the regulars in the party, represented by Clive Barlow in the movie, want to keep Trump out, despite his popularity with the common folk.
So Trump is the regular guy trying to enter the exclusive republican club. But unlike Monty, he already has his fortune. And that will make all the difference.