Ides of March

As I was looking for a picture to append to this entry, I ran across several reviews. One was particularly smug in its attack on George Clooney, star and director and producer and the utter simplicity of his presentation about political reality. The writer averred that while it had some insights, it really wasn't anything that could not be ascertained from regular media watching.

That may be, but the simplicity of a narrative of political intrigue, political murder and literal murder as in the case of Julius Caesar whose assassination invented the phrase "Ides of March" given that he was killed on that day in March (the 15th) apparently does not in any way diminish the truth of the evil of the human heart. Woe to the idealist who steps into that quaqmire!

I have seen  and experienced a tiny tiny bit of the reality of politics in my equally tiny life.  For my money, Mr. Clooney is spot on in demonstrating that idealists better find something else to do if they want to save their souls, unless if they should hold firmly to their values, they are willling martyrs, in every meaning of that term, career, reputation, life and limb, each and all potentially.

What I liked especially from Mr. Clooney, who is as much a diehard Democrat as I am a now die hard Republican is that the movie's context was the battle between two democrats in the Ohio primary, but transcended party to the larger reality of men and women, of ANY party, who begin to think they are bigger than their party's values, whatever they may be. These characters cast themselves in the roles of greater and lesser demi-gods, riding roughshod over people's very existences. In this world, also, loyalty, otherwise a lovely thing, means acceding to whatever dirty thing is necessary to achieve a goal.  Mr. Clooney's values are Democrat. Mine are Republican. Alas, however, the people we look to to promote our values often do not share them, in favor of getting and keeping that seat, damn it all. /Our politicians used to be better at selling us all the platitudes. Now they are laughable, whatever party member is speaking them. (For me, a Republican, last night's debate is an example of trivial form ignoring substance. And this seems to be a party neutral problem.)

Ryan Gosling is a 30 year old campaign guy working for another more powerful campaign guy (Seymour Phillip Hoffman) who is the manager of Mr. Clooney's campaign. He is tough. He is by no means pure as the driven snow, already understanding that you put negative stuff out there whether true or not, you are able to distract the poor sod  opponent who now has to deal with the press to put out the fire of the lie, and you slide on into political base. But, basically, Goslikng's character believes in his guy, and is willing to do what it takes to get him elected. The troubles begin for our young anti-hero when the campaign manager of the other campaign (played by the always believeable in the guise of the devil role, Paul Giamatti), calls the young idealist to get him to work for HIS guy's campaign. I won't spoil it, but after that, pretty much everybody and his brother and sister and daughter gets thrown under the bus. It never was about the values.  No surprise, of course, but wow, the resonant chills down my spine, at least, meant that this movie was effective to this viewer.


And it made me resent anew all the political intrigue I have witnessed or believe I have been the victim of in my getting fairly long life.  It has also made me grateful for the nearly completely (you can never avoid it entirely) apolitical life I have begun to lead and shall seek to lead henceforth.
If Mr. Gosling's character was trending toward hard when the movie began, he is an iceberg when the movie ends. A true tragedy. And while the humanity continues to grasp at being God which began with Adam and Eve, such tragedies will continue until the end of time.


Those little sisters I mentioned in my last entry?  The Sister Servants of Mary? Those are the kind of folks with whom my loyalty will be placed, those who want nothing mroe than the good of another, rather than their own self-aggrandizement.  I would beg God to let me learn from them.  You see, any politician who goes into that swarmy world and actually presses his or her true values will be turned or will be out. The banner of today's political world?  "Idealists need not apply". 


Remember Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"? Capra got it right, except the last part where Jimmy's character triumphs. That simply does not happen.