In the illuminating documentary Billy Wilder Speaks, Wilder, a man who came of age in Berlin in the 1920s and fled Europe with the rise of Hitlerism and was the very essence of “been there, done that” ***—talks about politics. He says offhandedly to fellow European Volker Schlondorff (I’m paraphrasing): “Republican? Democrat? Who cares! In America,” he adds, “there’s not much of a difference between parties.”
Rudy Giuliani would certainly disagree with Wilder, as he made plain in the second Republican debate last night when he attacked Hillary Clinton for her enthusiastic embrace of statism (to put it kindly):
Without mentioning her by name, Giuliani accused Clinton of believing that the free market is “disastrous” and that the government has to take money from citizens to spend on the common good.
“There’s such a stark difference there that this election in 2008 is going to make a very big difference about whether we go in that direction - the direction of removing private choice, putting … government in charge of so many things,” Giuliani said. “Republicans should be uniting to make certain that what the liberal media is talking about, our inevitable defeat, doesn’t happen.”
Were your knowledge of the world limited only to the full spectrum of ideas and positions spouted by American politicians, from the “hard right” all the way to the “hard left,” you’d have to agree with Giuliani that there are stark differences between the Dems and the Reps.
After all, isn’t Rudy the Fascist calling Hillary a Commie? How different can two candidates get? They certainly represent the opposite ends of the spectrum in mainstream American politics (i.e., the politics of the vast center), that’s for sure.
Which is where the Billy Wilder Perspective—a wide-angle shot encompassing not just American politics but sinister and inhospitable world politics—comes in. And that’s where I must concede that Wilder’s point of view is the sensible perspective from which to look upon American politics. +++
Also, there’s this post from Andrew Sullivan, who thinks that unpleasant, nasty harassment is a sign of the “Christianism” that threatens to swallow America:
Their take-over of the military continues under the radar. This time, they have been preying on sick veterans, including an orthodox Jew with kidney stones:
“Takeover”?
“Preying on”?
Darling, get me rewrite!
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*** an attitude that resonates with me, because I grew up in a milieu in which it was the prevailing attitude. My “people” were not jaded; they were experienced, in the sense of having seen everything and feeling that they’d seen too much … but at the same time knowing they had survived. Because that’s what human beings are wired, and fated, to do.
+++ Because, obviously, Rudy is not a fascist and Hillary is not a commie. Their biggest quibble is about how much of your money the government is going to take, and whether the government is going to give you (us) value for your (our) money. Everything else—and I do mean everything—is moot, because regardless of what the hottest partisans in the hottest partisan atmosphere say, we are all American to the bone and we love our freedoms. Even when the government tells us we can’t do something, we will find a way not just to do it but to contest it.
That is what makes us American. That is what we all have in common: the deep-seated, reflexive knowledge that, yes, you can fight City Hall.
