Tag Archives: T Bone Burnett

This Is Fear Country

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Since October 5, there have been seven eight suspicious deaths in rural Vermont. Yes, that’s a lot. But it’s not so far out of character as we’d like to believe for our oft-celebrated countryside. Which in our mind’s eye looks less like the above and more like the below:

There is, in truth, plenty of both in rural Vermont. On balance, though, probably more of the former than the latter. Rural Vermont, like rural America, can be beautiful and ghastly, peaceful and dangerous, prosperous and abandoned.

It would behoove us to hold both pictures in mind. It might help break down the imaginary barriers between our suspect cities, full of drugs, crime, and recent arrivals, and our countryside, a paradise of scenic beauty and hardworking people. You know, the “real Vermonters” living in the “real Vermont.”

What bullshit.

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The Apex of Entertainment Conservatism

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In a perfectly awful way, today was the perfect day.

Donald Trump.

At the John Wayne Homestead Museum.

Being endorsed by John Wayne’s descendants.

And then collecting the support of Sarah Palin.

It was the ideal display of something that MSNBC contributor Joy Reid calls “Entertainment Conservatism.” When I heard her say that, a bell rang in my head and a light bulb lit up above me.

John Wayne, the man brilliantly described by T Bone Burnett as the impostor, the “cowboy with no cattle, warrior with no war.”

Sarah Palin, supposedly a real Tea Partier, until today a staunch backer of Ted Cruz, aligning herself with Donald Trump.

Of course. Because she is, at heart, not an archconservative — she is an Entertainment Conservative.

In a fundamental way, this is the real heart of the conservative movement.

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