Michelle Obama is right. It's been a long time between such drinks that make us feel proud of our country and our leader. It's been a long time since I used the phrase,
"my president." I have, always had, patriotic reflexes. I’m not queasy about it either. Hell, I still tear up when I watch James Cagney as George M. Cohan in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy as he tap danced down the stairs of the White House after FDR gave him the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. But I haven’t felt very patriotic of late. We could sure use a Mr. Deeds in congress about now. Maybe even in the Oval Office.
Clearly fact-based documentaries of political misdeeds are important. They invite our anger and outrage. But that's not enough, especially not now. Our politicized media have to also play to the heart and to the emotions and values once so proudly connected to our national self-concept. These stirrings transcend self-interest and speak to a collective conscience or, more accurately, a collective Ego-Ideal, the stuff that maybe Aaron Copland was getting at in his Fanfare for the Common Man. Facts inspire essays but emotions can awaken idealism and idealism inspires movements. Rev. King knew that. And we dearly need an emotionally moved nation if we are to do what must be done. That dream must not be delayed any more.
Addendum: Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films production company contacted me about my blog and comments about these films only reaching the choir of supporters of Obama. Eddie Kurtz, a spokesman for the company made the following points:"While there is no doubt that active progressives occupy the majority of our email list, we get beyond that base in a couple ways. 1) We make a major effort to get top ranking on sites like Digg, Reddit, and YouTube. When you get highly ranked on those sites, many users encounter our videos who otherwise would not be exposed to them. 2) We make a major effort to gain mainstream media coverage for our work, and when we do, it exposes us to people not “in the choir.” We’ve received coverage in all the major newspapers, including this front page piece in the NYTimes."
So, I stand corrected and incomplete (see my reply to Alan's comment, below).
Disclosure: I have offered to do some unpaid, opinion research for Brave New Films on the impact of their films and ads on viewers who oppose Obama as well as those who support him.
