Feeling About The Race Against Fear... and Heath Ledger as Skip Engblom
by Joe Donnelly
February 6, 2008 9:24 PM
No one can really figure out what's going on after the Super Tuesday tie between Clinton and Obama. Many pundits say that the more the battle between Clinton and Obama goes on, the more it will benefit Obama because he has more money and his demographics are trending the right way -- encouraging numbers of white males, young people of both sexes and all races, upscale and educated voters, almost all African Americans, slightly improving numbers among Latino voters, winning in red states, etc. If this keeps up and the two go to the convention still in a dead heat, as seems likely, it would be hard to argue against his chances in a national race against McCain.
Hillary, however, will not go quietly. Despite the embarrassment of having to lend her own campaign $5 million, while Obama raised almost that much Wednesday just on the internet, she's a tough cookie and likely to fight to the end. But, Obama's in a race against more than Clinton and her dwindling funds. He's in a race against fear.
Okay, no one's polling this and I haven't heard any of the pundits on MSNBC or CNN caging the fear factor, but my guess is that as Clinton and Obama battle deeper into the Spring and even the Summer, the fear factor has a better and better chance of swamping the desire hope and change, or even hope for change, has had on our national psyche. Fear is like a storm gathering too far out on the horizon to really see. But you start to feel the storm in almost imperceptible ways, the way you feel a change in the barometric pressure before a cloud has sullied a blue sky. Then, the wind changes directions. Then a few dark clouds gather. And then maybe you feel a few drops, nothing to worry too much about. But, then the raindrops get bigger, harder, faster, and the wind kicks up some more and the skies darken and, before you know it, your in a deluge.
Right now, we're feeling the first few hard drops of rain on our economy. You sort of know it's going to get worse, but you don't know how much worse. Or maybe you know, but you haven't quite felt it yet. But, I'm afraid we all will. I've been through this before, seen the fear and stress of a deep recession, but not as an adult responsible for my own well being. My experience in the early '80s' deep recession was absorbed through my parents and my friends' parents, though I could feel it like one might feel second-hand smoke. The milder recession of the early 90s didn't hit me hard because I was basically in a state of self-imposed downward mobility, working dead end jobs while hiding out in a Colorado mountain town.
This one, though, feels like a hard Nor' Easter blowing across the land. It's chilling and scary and doesn't look like it's just going to pass through quickly. And with it comes increasing fear and anxiety about the future that will be felt both urgently and chronically. Urgently in that many, many folks are going to be pushed to their limits and beyond just trying to hold it together. Chronically in that many folks are going to feel they have to defer dreams both big and small and hunker down. Planned or hoped for changes will be put off. Risks will not be taken. The survivor instinct will battle against the dreamer's fancy. In short, people facing crisis will tend to pull back into their shells like turtles down and play things more conservatively.
This fear factor can obviously work in Clinton's favor. It gets back to what Big Bill was saying -- are you willing to roll the dice or do you want to go with someone who can make you feel safe? (The subtext being: remember how good it was when Hill and I were in the White House?). I suspect and worry that this fear factor will come into play more and more as the economy gets worse and worse. It favors the more conservative, safer choice -- Clinton -- over the more progressive, exciting choice: Obama. The fear factor isn't about race or gender, it's about experience and familiarity. It's about wanting someone to take care of you, versus, as Obama so beautifully expressed on Tuesday night, being the change you've been waiting for yourself.
I personally hope we don't succumb to fear. We've done too much of that in the past seven years, even if it was of a different sort -- the terror bogeyman versus economic terror. The challenge for Obama in the coming weeks is to convince an increasingly fearful populace that he understands the economy's structural problems, most of which can be traced to Reagan/Bush-enomics, and has an idea about what to do with them. (And no, $600 in every pocket isn't going to solve them, or even slow them down.) He has to counter the Clinton's "we'll take care of you" subtext with an even stronger message that he knows how to lead into a brighter future.
As for Heath Ledger, I didn't know him. But I do know the guy, Skip Engblom, who Ledger played in the fairly recent Lords of Dogtown film. Ledger's portrayal of Engblom is uncanny. He's almost eerie in how precisely he nailed not only the mannerisms, cadence and physical presence of Skip, one of the founders of the legendary Jeff Ho/Zephyr Surf Shop and Z-Boys skate team, about which much has been written (some by me: http://www.laweekly.com/news/features/the-ghosts-of-dogtown/4573/), but also how he raises Skip's spirit, which is the heart and soul and most of what's really great in a not altogether great film. It's worth seeing just for Ledger's performance, and if you know Skip, it's worth even more. Thanks, Heath.
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There are 1 comments posted for this article.
You knew I was commenting, didn't you? God, I'm so predictable. Like a moth to the flame, I can't resist your blog's bright, shiny colors. Is that moth predictable or gullible, or both? Whatever it is, I'm here to lend my two pennies. You know, for everything I've said in the past about him, I never hated Obama. I mean, I'm just idealistic one day and cynical the next, but I always thought he would be a great president and still do. No, I'm not jumping on the bandwagon... I am just saying: You probably didn't know that I respected him. I just thought he suffered from hubris... I mean who becomes a senator only to run for president two years later? But be that as it may... I'm for Hillary because she's a woman... and because she's paid her dues. And now I'm lumped into this Latino, racist voting block (thanks corporate media!) and it angers me! Grr... I was anti-Obama also because he's up against all these red states and I have such a low opinion of fly-over country that I never thought he'd win in November. I never in my wildest dreams would imagine this country would elect somoene named Barack Hussein Obama. Well, you're right about fear. I have fear a Republican will be elected ONCE AGAIN because I have no faith in my fellow Americans. Now, having seen his results after Tuesday I think he's the only one of the two that can beat McCain... just because McCain and Clinton both live in that clusterfuck known as Moderation and McCain doesn't have misogynism to deal with. Obama lives just outside that where people say things like the quote you mentioned above, which left such an idelible impression.
Posted on February 7, 2008 1:27 PM by Chris