Being the continuation of InstaPunk and InstaPunk Rules
The Fat Elvis Gambit
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A little bit of a thought piece. Just a little bit. I know nobody’s up to much thought these days. But I’m a huge fan of Canadian philosopher/rockstar/poet Leonard Cohen, who assures me, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
Found a crack. At a site called Raw Story. Written by Sarah Burris. Went like this:
FTA: <<That's mean to Elvis!' MSNBC panelists laugh at comment that Trump's in 'fat Elvis' phase…
MSNBC panelists couldn't help but chuckle Monday afternoon after The Bulwark's Charlie Sykes identified former President Donald Trump as being in the "fat Elvis stage of his career."
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) praised Sykes's comment on Monday morning, which started the network off.
"I've got to give a shout-out to my friend Charlie Sykes," McCaskill said at the top of Nicolle Wallace's show. "I spit coffee over the weekend when I saw how he referred to Trump, that Trump is in the fat Elvis stage of his career."
"I feel like that's mean to Elvis!" shouted Wallace.
"I mean, I love that. I love that," McCaskill continued. "And, by the way, fat Elvis is worried, and so is the weirdo he picked as his running mate."
McCaskill pointed out that the Democratic field "is pretty damn good," and Vice President Kamala Harris “doesn't have any bad choices.”
Sykes explained that the rally over the weekend was revealing.
"We can talk about, you know, what his strategy was and what he intended to do, but I also think, you know, the other thing was the complete lack of impulse control," explained Sykes Monday morning."You know, as Mike Barnicle says, this is a deeply damaged man who is really sort of, you know, once again in the fat Elvis stage of his career. I thought it was very revealing that ... he's going back to when he came down the golden elevator back in 2015.">>
So I thought about their insightful comments. Here’s what I thought.
**********
I kind of like the ‘Fat Elvis’ meme. Sorry to disappoint anyone who thinks it’s a putdown.
He kind of is…
I actually had to widen this pic to make the face look ‘Elvis’ fatter…
Keep listening. It gets harder to. He was in his forties. Trump is not.
Elvis. But in our dying American culture he might as well be. He’s a man, larger than life, self-made from his conspicuously dyed hair to his uniquely American identity and compulsive need to own every stage he mounted, simultaneously belovèd and mocked and charismatic. A worldbeater, conspicuous consumer, always a star if never praised as an actor, and always the center of attention among common people who didn’t begrudge him the Cadillacs and mansions and cheesy appetites and outrageous costumery.
Only America produces/produced this kind of fantastic icon, part hero, part genius, part show biz, part poseur and villain depending, and all man and always star of the show. George Washington. Andrew Jackson. Grant and Sherman. Abraham Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt. Paul Robeson. Jack Johnson. John Wayne. Muhammed Ali. Clint Eastwood. Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump. Men who live completely in public and rivet the world, regardless of their occasional sins and failures and astonishing triumphs over the Lilliputian snipers who eternally seek to bring them down. The company of the ineffable among Americans.
What else about them? They tend to wear their heart on their sleeve. What better target and bullseye could you ask for?
Fat Elvis? Yeah, I’ll take it…
Oh. That other thing. A sense of humor.
Youcan always tell the evil ones. They have no sense of humor. Something dark inside them rubs it out. Every word to them becomes literal and mean spirited. Ali was always laughing with his rhymes.John Wayne had his all-purpose rebuttal “That’ll be the day.” Clint Eastwood debated an empty chair at a Republican Convention. J. D. Vance identified a cat lady demographic absolutely everybody knows exists. Trump saw the new Harris-Walz ticket and predicted Biden would try to reclaim his nomination. He was joking (with a clever point as a punchline) but they have never understood that the Orange Man has a keenly developed sense of humor. You’d have to have a sense of humor of your own to respond accordingly. So they mocked him. Mocking a man for a joke he’s made at your expense is kind of a lead balloon.
The Raw Story stars? Sooo funny…. Peter Sykes writes for “The Bulwark,” the maniacal anti-Trump publication started by Jonah Goldberg I helped start some years ago with a helpful shove off the cliff. God, they’re all so old and bitter now…
Peter Sykes
(aka the post-career Rick Moranis years)
Claire McCaskill
(aka the post-career Trump scatter-shooter)
She’s still trying to get away with this pic at Wiki.
Hmm. I’ll go with that. I was never even an Elvis fan. But the night he died, I stayed up all night listening to the radio. I know an American hero when I hear one. How about you?
On the other hand, I’m not fat. They want to kill him. They still mean to. I fall asleep at night. What do I dream? Sorry. Unlike most of you, I’m a guy. When I was a consultant I wore charcoal gray and silver. Now I just wear black sweats and a black hat. Which is more dangerous you think?
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