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October There’s a rough and tumble game of high-stakes poker being played again this election cycle. We saw the moves as we looked over that vast crowd of white faces in St. Paul last month. It’s not new at all -- the Republicans saw the Democrats’ play at their convention and raised the ante. Republicans are better at the game because they’ve been playing it for years with a cowboy president shuffling the deck. Progressives and liberals don’t play it well because they’re not into games. They want authenticity, community, and shared wealth instead, and don’t even want to believe anyone would play so ruthlessly. But it is ruthless -- a “man’s” game. Those who won’t play it? Be prepared to have your masculinity questioned. It’s a game of the good ol’ white boys club. It lays down race, gender, class, and power cards. And it’s a game that those working class people who admire such manliness aspire to play. They’ll cheer and vote for its winners in spite of losses these admirers have already suffered. It’s a game played in the boardrooms and stock exchanges, a game that admires CEOs who personally win when their companies lose. It’s a game of wheelers and dealers who outsmart, outplay, and out-power. It’s a game that values rogues like playboy, frat boy, sowed-his-wild-oats, strutting George W. Bush. And it idolizes them as “mavericks.” Yeah, they’re womanizers who knew how to play, and they treated women the way good ol’ boys do. Women must play their game. So pointing out how they use women only furthers their hero status in the locker-room stories of the other boys. Think of Bret Maverick, the gambler of the 1957-1962 TV series. He never settled down, knew how to take other men for their holdings, flimflammed adversaries, charmed women and left ‘em. Think of Tom Cruise in Top Gun, who’s handle was Maverick because he was a “hot shot.” He knew how to be a player, valued the play over the consequences, and was admired not for his integrity or compassion but as a “man’s man.” Now it’s John McCain, who clings to the maverick image and gambles among the good ol’ white boys. You’d think that wouldn’t be the president we’d want, but it’s the kind of man that the on-going good ol’ boys’ game crowns its winner. They admire the man who makes a killing in the stock market while others suffer, works the system to come out on top, lets the rest eat his dust, wins while others lose. Usually others lose so that he can win the whole pot. Their destruction makes it all the sweeter. They admire the man who knows what the game is, knows it’s a game, and gets his kicks by playing. He keeps a poker face. He lets people know only what he wants them to know, not what they need to know. He knows “when to hold em” and “when to fold em.” He’s good at reading other people’s faces -- not to empathize with them and their plight, but to use their weaknesses, misplays, fears, and insecurities for his own victory. And they like women who know what the game played by good ol’ boys’ rules is; women who are willing to take a woman’s place at the table. When the maverick finally settles down, it’s with a “looker,” not just any woman: like a beauty pageant contestant who knows how to play by, not question, the rules. Sarah Palin is a player. She not only knows the game but plays it well enough to be the ol’ boys’ vice president. So, on top of the fact that she rallies the religious right-wing base and its ol’ boy leaders to the ol’ boy ticket, on top of the fact that she’s the perfect move to distract a media that pretends to be news-oriented, Palin plays the woman’s part in the game. She is more than just a trophy. She’s plays Annie Oakley style without disrupting the boys. She fits the motherhood images, fusing the old right-wing idealism of a mom who appears to put family first with the reality most right-wing families face – the mother juggling this ideal with work outside the home to make it financially. She’s on display – most importantly – as winning the ol’ white boys’ game. She out-maneuvered the good ol’ boys of Alaska. She called their bluff. Palin’s earned their highest compliment -- “she’s as good as any man” -- because she knows how to lie, demean, and destroy her opponents at all costs, and she’s willing to do the ol’ boys’ dirty work. Fighting for her men and cleaning up after him are crucial. And she “knows how to field dress a moose,” to actively participate in the National Rifle Association, and to cut, filet, and dress an enemy. How much more useful could a woman be? The good ol’ boys have found a way to protect their woman while still reminding us she’s a woman. They’ve discovered a new word to bandy about at every criticism of her: “sexism.” They know how all of this gamesmanship can appeal to those white working class voters. “This election,” McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said, “is not about issues so much as the candidates’ images.” It’s about that hope in many men that they can rise to become a player like McCain, Bart Maverick, or Cruise’s flyboy. It’s a version of the American dream applied to politics by Karl Rove and his disciples. It’s tied to a ruthless, kill-or-be-killed image of manhood that feminists of all genders have questioned. Some do expose the gamesmanship it is – John Stewart and Steven Colbert of Comedy Central or the late comedian George Carlin. The rest of us, including the Obama campaign, need to recognize this game, face the fact (against all our liberal fantasies) that it’s ruthless and heartless, never miss an opportunity to expose it, and, most importantly, stay on task by speaking from the real values we take too seriously to play games about. © 2008 Robert N. Minor Other Issues, Books, Resources
Robert N. Minor is the author of Scared Straight: Why It's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to Be Human and Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He may be reached through www.fairnessproject.org
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