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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsConservatives' Hilarious, Doomed Efforts to Be Cool
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/conservatives-hilarious-doomed-efforts-be-coolConservatives have a problem with cool. If they were smart, right-wing pundits and Republican political consultants would just ignore the whole concept of cool. Being conservative is inherently uncool, since the whole point of conservatism is to reject the forward-looking and liberated attitude that has always defined cool. Worrying much about it is just a waste of time. Trying to be cool just makes you look ridiculous, and paradoxically, more uncool. Its a no-win situation, and yet conservatives continue taking the bait, forever trying to get this whole concept of cool to work for them and always, always failing.
The latest example of the Republicans trying to figure out to work this cool thing and failing is an ad campaign running in 14 states with Senate campaigns in 2014 that shows Scott Greenberg, a 30-year-old Audi driver saying things like he is ticked off at politicians for passing regulations, which he believes are the source of unemployment. We are clearly meant to believe that Greenberg is a hipster, demonstrating the infallible conservative ability to hop on any trend right after its run out of steam. Greenberg wears a striped shirt and glasses and has a scraggly beard, but sadly for Scott Greenberg and his benefactors, none of that does much to conceal the eau de dweeb that hovers over anyone who takes seriously the idea that wealthy businessmen are the major oppressed class of America.
Its hard to see why Republicans even bother. Even if it were possible to trick young voters into thinking you can vote Republican and still be cool, it isnt really necessary. Its not like the millennial crowd is dweeb-free, for one thing. For another, the usual tactics of using catchphrases like small government and personal responsibility to cover up race-baiting pandering to white people is working pretty well on white millennials, though perhaps not quite as well as it did on white people before.
No, its safe to say that this attempt to be cool is less about really peeling off votes from the Democrats. No, this is about something deeper, a long-standing jealousy and resentment of the left for being a giant vacuum that sucks up all the cool people, leaving behind the right. (Lets be clear, by no means am I saying all Democrats are cool. They have their fair share of dorks and dweebs. But it is, and many Republicans are keenly aware of this, true that most cool people are pretty liberal. It just comes with the territory.) This creates a major insecurity on the right, and periodically there are embarrassing attempts to deal with it by asserting, laughably, that they have cool people on their side of the aisle, too. Its painful to watch.
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Conservatives' Hilarious, Doomed Efforts to Be Cool (Original Post)
xchrom
Mar 2014
OP
That rethug ad has the appeal of Nixon on the beach in dark socks and wing tips.
kairos12
Mar 2014
#7
Sadly not the only party full of faux hipsters with conservative ideas. nt
raouldukelives
Mar 2014
#10
So the bagger idea of "cool" is a hipster doofus with a serious underbite. Figures.
catbyte
Mar 2014
#11
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)1. Nick Gillespie is The Fonzie of Freedom
Hip To Be Square didn't really last all that long.
&feature=kp
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. a trip down memory lane
Heidi
(58,237 posts)3. This thread needs some Bette Midler!
xchrom
(108,903 posts)4. ! mornin Miss Heidi! and of course Bette is a Personal Hero...
love ya, Miss Heidi!
marble falls
(57,010 posts)5. <snicker> “ticked off at politicians” in a political ad <snicker>
kairos12
(12,843 posts)7. That rethug ad has the appeal of Nixon on the beach in dark socks and wing tips.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)8. I was going to ask, with all the actors out there,
why did they choose this one?
But it turns out - Scott Geenberg is a real person!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/23/1286844/-Several-facts-about-Scott-Greenberg-the-GOP-s-new-hipster-in-those-creepy-ads
Talk about taking one for the team!
Scott Greenberg of AMPS Creative has worked with the following:
- Mellow Mushroom (Restaurant)
OK, at first I was like "why would those hippies hire this guy to promote them?" and then I realized he probably was a check-in host for a couple of months or something.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)9. IMO there are very few people that qualify for "Cool"
It's not how one dresses, or drives, or drinks or drugs or curses....
it's how one stands out as an individual of superior worth in the mass of wannabes. There's more bang for the buck with a cool person.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)10. Sadly not the only party full of faux hipsters with conservative ideas. nt
catbyte
(34,335 posts)11. So the bagger idea of "cool" is a hipster doofus with a serious underbite. Figures.
niyad
(113,066 posts)12. the same sort of non-mind "thinking" that tried to convince us that rummy was sexy/cool.
ProfessorPlum
(11,253 posts)14. You'll love Sam Seder's take on these ads
snarkalicious
Danascot
(4,690 posts)15. Anybody who wears
a French fisherman's shirt (real or fake) is by definition trying way too hard.
Cool is similar to charisma; you have it or you don't and most people know it intuitively.
Rex
(65,616 posts)16. Everyone knows it is uncool to be a tool.
ALL GOPukers are tools in some way.
pa28
(6,145 posts)17. I originally thought this was a bad actor playing a hipster.
Scott Greenberg, if that really is his name, comes off as a total clown.