The Empty Chair: The New Straw Man?

[Bad Thoughts]

I thought that Clint's speech perfectly represented the GOP mentality: arguing with an imaginary opponent who confirms all your fears. He tells you that the worst you think about your opponents is true. The empty chair is a socialist, communist, fascist, Nazi, Islamist, terrorist, foreigner, all wrapped up in one, trying to undermine "your" America. You can beat up the empty chair, torture it, because it's not a real person with real answers. There are not consequences to abusing the empty chair because it has no rights and it is an imminent threat to you.

How to defeat the empty chair? A real candidate.

[sofa king]

1. It's such a beautiful metaphor.

In journalism, a "cold seat" or "empty chair" interview is considered one of the more unforgivable faux pas that a journalist can commit. Both Nancy Gross and Piers Morgan have been excoriated for it by their peers.

So what better way to wind up an awful week of lies and deception than with an empty chair interview and speechless journalists?

I'm still wondering if Clint tanked his speech on purpose, hoping to get funding for his next film project while actually damaging the prospects of the GOP as a whole. A little like the joke about the guy who pees on the bar and makes everyone happy about it.

But I'm leaning toward old and incoherent.

[Bad Thoughts]

3. I think the ad-lib made him incoherent

But the concept I don't think is unfounded. It's a stage monologue. It's the kind of thing where the actor speaks to the other, but is really speaking about himself. That's the problem: the actor ultimately reveals his own fears and anxieties and inner conflicts rather than finding resolution or truth. It's powerful, but it always is staged with a sense of tragedy.

The comparison to the cold seat/empty chair is very apt. I hadn't thought about how the metaphor might apply in other disciplines, but it explains how wrong Clint went.

[sofa king]

9. Heh. So it's a mixed metaphor!

A horrifying mishmash of flubbed stagecraft and deceptive journalism... with makes it even more descriptive of the convention as a whole.

Eastwood himself is a far more complex person than the average Republican, one of the early opponents of animal cruelty in film, a vegan, anti-war, pro-choice, in favor of gay marriage and the Equal Rights Amendment. The GOP has long since left Eastwood's domestic politics far behind, which is why I'm still wondering whether Clint deliberately tanked his act.

[JaneyVee]

2. A rich old white man fighting against an imaginary black threat sums up the GOP

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Old man yells at chair

[Bad Thoughts]

6. HA!

That's perfect.

[sadbear]

5. Burn all empty chairs!!!!!

[treestar]

7. Exactly

Most Republican arguments are straw men.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. They can't even be bothered to set up a straw man to knock down. Just empty air. nt

[ZenLefty]

10. Eventually, they'll have to debate the real Barack Obama

I think they know they're going to get their asses handed to them, so they devised this fiction that they can fantasize about every so often. "Oh yeah, Obama kicked our asses in the real debates. But remember that one debate that we won? The one with clint eastwood? That was awesome, I'll never forget that."

It's like they have a problem when people talk back. Especially minorities, who should just sit down and be quiet while they tell them how it is.