(Forgive the pedantry, but this may be news to some younger readers.)
That phrase – birthed a nation – isn’t a mistake.
It’s a dog whistle hearkening back to one of the most famous films in American History: The Birth of a Nation. That film, originally titled The Clansman, presented the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as “a heroic force necessary to preserve American values and a white supremacist social order.”
Probably this was deliberate, but maybe The Birth of a Nation is just so deeply rooted in Santorum’s psyche that it pops out of his mouth without warning.
I first became acquainted with him through his book, Slouching Through Gomorrah, in which he sets out to commit all seven of the deadly sins. It is tremendously funny, especially the chapter on lust (he goes on a ‘date’ with a New York escort).
The thing I noticed most was not so much the incomplete apology (though I did think he made some effort in that direction) but the semi-incoherence of his presentation, both in the interview and in the clip of his speech.
Plus, of course, he’s totally wrong about Native American influence on the origins of North American civilization. Don’t know why he couldn’t just say that, and expand upon it with some common-knowledge details.
Yes, and it’s a fact that many New England people who were taken captive and adopted by Native American tribes refused to return home when the opportunity was open to them.
The movie has never had a different title.
The book on which it is based is “The Clansman.”
The subject matter is racist, horrifying, and repellent.
The movie’s fame resides in its groundbreaking use of film, in the camera work by Billy Bitzer, and in the invention of many now-standard film techniques by D. W. Griffith—techniques unknown before 1915, when the movie was made.
As US history, the movie sucks.
As film history, it is unparalleled and essential.
As Dan Savage crudely but aptly said at the beginning of COVID and taking necessary precautions like wearing a mask. When you go out to a club and are having sex you don’t come home and f*** everyone in the house.
One day I was on the subway when I noticed an orthodox Jewish man reading the Village Voice. He had it flipped over to Dan Savages column where he was very immersed in it.
The “contrasting viewpoints” model hasn’t made sense for at least 40 years but TV news is so ossified and mediocre, although other descriptors are also apt, that they barely recognize it. I would gladly bet you a thousand bucks that everyone who deals with him knows Santorum is an empty-headed fool. But without watching this stuff ever, my guess is he likes being on TV well enough that he’s less likely than some to get into shouting matches with other people so it goes a bit more smoothly. He shows up on time, wears a jacket, that kind of thing. It’s nonsense and they all know it, it’s a charade, but they’re all getting paid to do it and so the decades pass. It’s sad and bad that they’re out there purporting to inform people when it’s a net loss in awareness for anyone who pays attention.
I agree, but IMO the problem is that the hosts don’t know any more than the idiots like Santorum do. Santorum should have been challenged on the myth that the founders were men of conscience and principle. Where, for instance, was the “freedom to practice their own religion” when it came to the nearly 20% of Americans held in slavery, or all the native americans whose sacred lands were stolen with zero regard for “religious beliefs”. Hell, the early settlers who were fleeing religious persecution were often just as religiously intolerant as the places they left – consider the salem witch trials and their connection with native americans.
Its one thing to say “I want to present both sides” – its another thing to legitimize lies and bigotry because you lack the knowledge (or the interest in) to effectively rebut the foundational lies told by these bigots.
Welp, when you have 24/7 “news” and how many stations devoted to it, gotta fill the time. One of the worst developments of modern “culture” (and that’s a pretty low bar) …
And that vapid time-filling is why I never got cable. (Also not a big sports fan.) If you’ve heard two dullards trying to fill the hours with verbiage even once during a rocket launch or a royal wedding or whatever you know it’s as meaningless as the noise from a waterfall.
And the “contrasting viewpoints” has gotten so much worse. I posted this elsewhere, but on Sunday, every network gave a platform to a Republican senator who pushed the Big Lie for weeks: Rob Portman—6 weeks John Barrasso—7 weeks Tim Scott—8 weeks Bill Cassidy—16 days. Every host deliberately refused to bring it up NBC, ABC, CBS & Fox.
I mean, it’s just our history and democracy itself.
In and of itself, nope. Unless he is shown to have deliberately misled the court and to have approached the matter with malice and forethought, he’s just a guy who went to D.C.
The defense had ample opportunity to explore his suitability and accepted him. He did not answer misleadingly and his presence in D.C. is not evidence of a lack of impartiality.
