The Monster is Dying
Maybe it's the approach of Halloween.
Maybe I've spent too much time lately watching terrible old films.
I know I've spent too much time watching political coverage.
But it hit me this week that the country is not just closing in on the end of a two-year presidential campaign that we've all focused on with frightening intensity.
This whole thing is starting to feel a lot like the climactic death scene at the end of a 1950s monster movie.
I say this with some expertise.
My 6-year-old nephew Charlie is obsessed with science fiction movies, especially the really bad ones. Pseudo-classics like The Black Scorpion, The Giant Claw and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, inadvertently hilarious Hollywood creature features that seem to perpetually focus on an imperiled earth threatened by a massive monster that, at least for most of the movie, seems impervious to bombs, bullets, and bad acting.
Charlie is happiest when the TV room at his house sounds like the epicenter of the End Times.
You know, filled with the shrieks of screaming victims, the thunder of fleeing crowds, the roaring of the giant three-headed fiend and the constant thud of American military units helplessly firing rockets at the approaching beast that bounce off its steely chest like toothpicks.
The other day, Charlie and I were enjoying some quality time on the couch watching one of his favorites, "It Came From Beneath the Sea." As the giant octopus ravaged San Francisco, I couldn't resist getting a political fix.
So I started flipping back and forth between the movie -- the creature being electrocuted as it claws at the Golden Gate Bridge -- and cable news coverage of the campaign -- angry Republican speeches packed with Rovian talking points, peeved conservative pundits and video of name-calling mobs outside McCain-Palin campaign stops.
The movie ends with a writhing death scene of the prehistoric sea monster sinking back under the waves.
You know what?
This campaign may not end so differently.
The monster -- the Republican attack machine which has dominated and damaged American politics for so long -- is dying.
Finally.
Back in the '50s, when all the really good bad monster movies were made, the country was peaceful but scared. Kids practiced how to "duck and cover" in case of atomic attack and Hollywood made movies that were transparent metaphors for our most profound fears.
Americans could barely keep track of all the things we were afraid of -- Communists and aliens, science and change, foreigners and the future, sex and personal freedom.
In other words, it was a lot like a Sarah Palin rally.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but Palin actually resembles that old monster movie staple -- the beautiful-but-bookish brunette working as a lab assistant for the older scientist whose irresponsible experiments lead to tragedy.
The attractive assistant is perpetually the last to realize that the project she has been helping out on has gone bad. She is an innocent in a threatening environment, a cheerful young woman with a tendency to make mind-boggling errors, like deciding to tidy up her chemistry bench, always failing to look over her shoulder and see the monster approaching from behind.
She only figures this out when the music comes to a screeching crescendo.
Still, at least in the movies, the Palin character knows how to pronounce "nuclear."
Another possibly important point for the Alaska Governor's political future -- in Hollywood, this character is always lucky enough to escape the monster's grasp and survive.
The old scientist -- not so much.
Today, it appears that Senator McCain, the old scientist in this campaign, has fallen into the clutches of the monsters of American politics.
By choosing to experiment with character attacks, robo-calls, guilt by association, outright name-calling, fear-mongering and trying to divide Americans by race and religion, he has been swallowed up by the horrible creature he and his assistants have cooked up in their crude lab.
He has been eaten alive by the Karl Rove Republican noise machine.
And yet for all McCain's effort, for all his compromise, for all the cost of turning his back on what we thought was his personal value system -- it's not working.
Americans aren't responding to the old plays -- the fake fears, the faux outrage, the conservatives who yell "Communist" at the news cameras, the pompous right-wing bloggers who once held such sway.
I know all too well how scary and effective these old tactics were in 2004.
Today, they are toothless.
Ha, ha.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing once swaggering players like Powerline, Free Republic and Little Green Footballs forced onto the sidelines, left to limply watch this campaign pass by like a parade in which they play no meaningful part.
They just don't matter anymore.
This election, voters don't seem to be afraid of the bogeymen the old Republican machine has tried to wave in their faces.
This election, most of us can see that these perennial political demons are exactly like the ones dreamed up to scare Americans 50 years ago -- phony creatures made of paper mache, decorated with fake feathers and fur, attached to pulleys, and held together with glue, gaffer's tape and greed.
Make-believe monsters don't scare us when our real fears are larger than life.
We are afraid of a depression. We are fighting wars on two fronts. Some of us are losing our homes. Many of us desperately need help with health care.
I know the campaign isn't over and I know that the creatures that have bedeviled American politics may rise again - just like in the movies -- at least for one last desperate and spectacular assault within the next two weeks.
The monsters aren't dead yet, but this time -- for the first time -- I believe they are dying.
My nephew Charlie is now working to create his own monster movies. He sits for hours, carefully drawing elaborate mock storyboards, planning his special effects and thinking hard about how to give his would-be films lofty and serious titles.
He tries to choose the kind of name for his projects that would sound good if growled into a microphone by a deep-voiced announcer with that special agitation reserved for 1950s tabloid movie trailers.
Charlie's latest movie's working title is "God Sent Them Back."
I hope you're right, kiddo.
I sure hope you're right.
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Not sure how to pronounce Mapes. Does it rhyme with sour grapes?
Wow. Rather bitter and petty of you, there, Mapes.
Sour grapes from 2004, then?
Thank you for an enjoyable read, Ms. Mapes! I had a similar idea several weeks ago and set it into motion. Some of your readers may enjoy my similar take on this monster movie concept. The first link is to a single article I posted to BNN September 29th to be enjoyed throughout the month of October. The second link is to a series of separate images I am posting to my blog, one for each day of October, 2008. You can either read the posts in chronological order by clicking each link in the left column or simply read them in reverse order by starting at the top. Thank you.
http://www
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I love this article, keep up the good work. The republicans prey on peoples fears, lie and smear every chance they get. It's worked for them in the past, so, why change. I just hope that finally, people are starting to wake up a really see what's going on right now, and hopefully, are outraged at what has transpired over the last eight years. We need new leadership and new ideas. The republicans don't have a clue. Obama & Biden are the most qualified team to get this country back on it's feet.
Really interesting take, Ms. Mapes, I hope you are right. The monster though isn't paper mache-it is real. The Republican machine, like in that movie the Mangler has mangled every part of our lives for so long that we have almost given up hope that anything can ever change.
Actually they would had been able to do it again probably because people had become so numb, dispirited, preyed upon but for the arrival of another monster- a much bigger monster, a much scarier monster- the monster of being on the street, homeless, of starving to death in the USA, of seeing your life and the lives of your children turn to ashes, of losing everything you worked for. This is the more terrifying monster Americans are beginning to see coming over the horizon.
The monster will always be lurking about folks. It thrives on the fact that many Americans have a primordial fear the someone or something is coming to take their "stuff".
You're absolutely right, Caddisfly, the monster never dies. I thought the monster was dead in 1992, but Clinton let it slip away. Despite Obama's best efforts, there will always be a part of the collective psyche of America that will displace hopes and dreams with fears and despair.
Let's enjoy the sunshine while we can.
You know, there is a resemblance between McCain and the Giant Claw.
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Really, you think the monster has died? The only reason the smear monster isn't working is the economy monster has pushed it aside. Trust me Rove/Atwater are the beast with a thousand lives. They will be back in 2010, 2012 etc. This is the only thing the Republicans know that has worked for them.
Think of it every idea the Republican neo-con god Ronald Regan championed has failed. What's left for the Republicans other than fear and smear? They can't or won't govern effectively when given power so in order to stay relevant they are going to trash and demonize Obama and the Democrats.
I just worry that this may be one of those movies where the defeated Godzilla wades out into the darkest depths of the ocean to recover, so that it can appear in the sequel a few years later.
Great analogy (big b-horror fan myself). The end of the McCain campaign is turning out like the end of Plan 9 From Outer Space. Although it was a movie about space invaders, they ran out of script/tim
This is a brilliant article!
It is like watching a monster dying. I
The neo cons unleashed the predator in the collective unconscious
For a while there it was like being eaten alive.
Which is maybe why I'm getting so much pleasure out of watching
them self destruct in front of us. I'm praying for a monster landslide;)
Just one flaw in this analysis: If Americans are not buying it, why is McCain at 48% ?
I think it's because not everyone is blinded by celebrity. The pendulum is swinging to the left right now. At some point in the future it will swing the other way. Hopefully we will still recognize the US when it does. We are entering a very interesting time.
not sure what America you want to see webnuts4u2. Apparently you have enjoyed the current pendulum swing to the right. I know I have personally enjoyed the loss of global esteem, the decline in our youth's educational preparedness compared to other countries, the lower standard of living, the growing income gap, the leisurely wars we have half-ass committed to, and the collapse of our greedy financial system.
Good times, good times.
Fanfare, I have asked myself the same question. Who are these people? 48%? People have lost homes, jobs, bank accounts, you name it, yet, this continue to vote against their own best interests. It makes no sense.
Excellent post, but please don't dis my homies, Willis O'Brien ("The Black Scorpion" AND "King Kong") and Ray Harryhausen (O'Brien's protege), they were geniuses! And I think it's great Charlie loves those old black and white films. They're much better than most of the rubbish being foisted on audiences as "sci-fi" these days!
It would be pretty close to 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers' with a different ending, where Donald Sutherland defeats them instead of becoming one.
At that that point, the aliens form a disgruntled group that lives here with us and tries to subvert
humanity till the end of time.
I wish you were right saying that the evil is dying, but I don't think so. It owns most of the mainstream media so it will spin events to it's benefit. The latest is Newsweek spinning Sen. Obama as a leftist rather than as the centrist he is. This after they accepted McCain's claims that Sen. Obama was a minor legislator even though he has a sterling record for a senator so junior. And etc., etc., etc.
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