Reality in the USA

The Gap Between Reality-Based America and Bush's Fantasy Island Grows Greater! But the Democratic Leaders on Capitol Hill are Captives on the Island.

Yes, the gap between what is really happening in the United States and the world as compared to the Hollywood style narrative peddled by the Rovian propaganda machine grows greater.

As many critics have noted, what the Republican Party does best is sell a story about America by playing on images and themes with deep emotional resonance to a large segment of the nation. This story is no truer in terms of facts and what is happening than an episode of "The Brady Bunch" is to real life in American families.

This ability to sell a fictional political "narrative" to a large chunk of Americans was exemplified by the ascent and election of Ronald Reagan, who acted his way into and through the White House. He was literally the epitome of GOP production values: an actor who performed his role of president with the support of a Hollywood-style production team who wrote his "patriotic," macho scripts -- and a literal television production team that made his presidency a series of on-location "scenes" for the movie that was his presidency.

Bush wasn't an actor, but Karl Rove was his Henry Higgins. Rove molded Bush's high "affability ratings" into a fairly skilled television actor -- as long as he sticks to the script written for him. Rove provides the Hollywood style settings, the Frank Luntz focus-group tested themes and phrases, and invites the media to serve as the film production team, which they dutifully do.

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