David Mamet was interviewed by Hugh Hewitt for two hours on Friday about his new book, “The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture.” Hewitt has posted a transcript of the entire interview, worth reading in its entirety.
The following is their colloquy about Sarah Palin — and why she remains a mystery to the Left even as it cannot stop talking about her:
HH: . . . On Page 137, you write, “Part of the left’s savage animus against Sarah Palin is attributable to her status not as a woman, neither as a conservative, but as a Worker.” That is, I think, 100% correct. Would you explain that to people?
DM:Yeah, the left of today is not the left of my father’s day when it was made up of workers and factory workers and housewives, and veterans of World War II, and people who fix the lawnmowers, and the Republicans were the guys in the plaid pants who didn’t let the Jews in. The left of today is, it’s very much the cheese and white wine guy sitting around and talking about the greed, how greedy the world is, and how the dumb Americans have ruined this beautiful, beautiful world. . .
[She] is attacked as an attractive woman, freed succubus, and attacked because she’s an actual worker, and because her story is part of the American myth.
HH: Yeah, she was a commercial fisherman, and like Harry Truman, actually knew of which she speaks when she talks about hard work.
DM: Sure, and also it’s part of our myth of Hollywood, you know, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, or The Farmer’s Daughter, The Candidate, Bulworth, The Contender. The myth is played out over and over and over again, Dave, the normal person who says “well heck, I can do that,” and in effect, can do it and rises to the highest office in the land. So when the left sees that in real life, of someone who is not on their side but on the other side, someone who has not been indoctrinated, someone who expresses herself well and is unusual and attractive and funny, it scares the hell out of them.
So they say oh, you know, she’s stupid. I say I don’t get the joke. I don’t see what she’s stupid about. She seems to have succeeded wildly at everything that she ever did. All right, she’s just the governor of Alaska. Well hell, I’m not the governor of Alaska, and you aren’t. I doubt that either of us could be starting from zero. Well, it’s a small state. It just has a few people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But the left knows not why it hates Sarah Palin, but they’re still talking about her. . . .
They got scared so bad that they can’t stop complaining about her.
Last night, Jon Stewart started The Daily Show with a 10-minute riff on Sarah Palin’s recent bus ride and a devastating video-montage of “day the media spent reading her 24,199 emails.” It is worth watching.
My thoughts about David Mamet’s new book are here; my thoughts on the over-the-top reaction to Sarah Palin’s comment about Paul Revere are here.