Would Michael Moore’s career be as bountiful without President Bush? Doubt it! Would The Nation magazine have doubled its circulation in the past four years without the Bush administration? No way! Would the ACLU have gained 50,000 new members since 9/11–a near 20 percent jump–without John Ashcroft? Repeat after me: No!
Face it: Without Lex Luthor, Clark Kent was just a mild-mannered reporter. Likewise, Americans’ liberal and cultural mindset is entering a new golden age–and we have the repressive Bush administration to thank for it.
In the ’80s, the staunchly conservative lifestyle propagated by President Ronald Reagan inspired a punk music revival–from Dead Kennedys to Minor Threat. Not to mention the dawn of gangsta rap that rallied against the Reagan administration’s law-and-order cowboy-and-Indian mentality. (Compared to, say, the bling-bling egocentric hiphop of the Clinton ’90s.) Or what about that cottage industry of slyly subversive movies like Breakfast Club and Revenge of the Nerds that rebelled against the status quo and nudged a generation to overthrow bullies, question materialism, and live by their own rules?
It’s not just a coincidence that some of the most repressive and politically frustrating eras in world history have also been some of the most colorful and robust. Would rock n’ roll have evolved from doo-wop teenage love songs to angry firestorms of screaming guitars and barbed lyrics in the late ’60s without the Vietnam War and Nixon administration to rally against? How roaring would the ’20s have been without Prohibition? Or, without the turn-screw 14th Century religious crusades, would Renaissance artists have bloomed like wild flowers in a barren desert?
You are probably still licking wounds from last year’s election and bracing for four more years of lies, homophobia and Bible-thumping. Perhaps every time you hit I-5 you may even consider steering your Volvo straight to Canada. But while you may trick those Canucks into giving you citizenship, you could be missing out on something much better, and far more meaningful: witnessing and participating in one of the most bountiful and creative periods in American history.
Newton’s law of motion comes into play; Bush may be bombing and destroying villages in the Middle East, but those actions are having a direct and opposite reaction at home. They are drawing progressive communities together and a new liberal consciousness is taking shape–the first phase in a cultural revolution.
Take, for example, Vermont. Three weeks ago, 39 out of 45 cities and towns passed resolutions demanding that their National Guard members be withdrawn from fighting in Iraq. Now that’s community spirit! But could it have happened five years ago? Hilary Clinton admonished us routinely in the ’90s that it takes a village to raise a child–but did we really listen back then? Nah. We were too busy fattening our stock options, enjoying the bliss of ignorance (to global issues), and tuning out to the ambient, meaningless music of Moby.
But now, an act as simple as shopping at a local store and buying organic milk can be a soul-stirring and satisfying act of defiance against the Bush administration–a thumb in the predominant paradigm of corporate farms (see “Don’t Panic, Buy Organic,” below). The Reagan/AIDS era inspired gay activists like those in ACT UP to take action against homophobia; will a new, more aggressive group promoting same-sex marriage spring up here in Oregon (see “Second Class Citizens, Unite!” page 11)?
Or, consider popular entertainment: Gone are the Rooskies we vilified in ’80s classics like Top Gun. Now the evil in our movies, music, videogames, and TV shows are supplied by our own federal government (see “I Love TV,” page 48). From fashion to film, books to music, America is kicking back into cultural gear–and it’s all because we have a common enemy to define our cause and show us the way.
So, we at the Mercury say: Thank you, President Bush! Thank you for being such a repressive, uncompromising, narrow-minded dick. Your my-God-or-the-highway shtick doesn’t scare us. No, sir, we are inspired. You are our anti-muse. We declare you our new Chief of Culture. Now, just watch what we’ll create.