- Joined
- Jul 19, 2012
- Messages
- 14,185
- Reaction score
- 8,768
- Location
- Houston
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Libertarian
Unlike "progressives", conservatives have generally not held an artist's politics against him. If the entertainment is good then that's good enough for conservatives. If an entertainer's politics are objectionable then, well, he's just an entertainer. Who cares what his opinions about politics are?
To the "progressive", of course, a person's politics is the key to everything about them.
So, although I never knew anything about Garrison Keillor's politics, when I read the fawning piece about him in the New York Times it was clear to me that he had always been a "progressive" regardless of what his writing was like or else they wouldn't like him at the Times.
If the "progressive" finds himself in admiration of such unprogressive folk as the citizens or Lake Wobegon or his own family, then he must not be as special as he thinks he is. And that can't be.
Regardless, I enjoy the Lake Wobegon shows, the Prairie Home Companion series. There's a vast collection of them on CD and DVD.
To the "progressive", of course, a person's politics is the key to everything about them.
So, although I never knew anything about Garrison Keillor's politics, when I read the fawning piece about him in the New York Times it was clear to me that he had always been a "progressive" regardless of what his writing was like or else they wouldn't like him at the Times.
Curiously, Mr. Keillor has always found it difficult spending so much time with the strong, good-looking, above average people of Lake Wobegon, which he based on his relatives, past and present.
In “The Keillor Reader” (2014), he complained bitterly about “their industriousness, their infernal humility, their schoolmarmish sincerity, their earnest interest in you, their clichés falling like clockwork — it can be tiring to be around.”
Speaking on his porch, Mr. Keillor said of Lake Wobegonians, i.e., his relatives, “I am frustrated by them in real life.” They were too controlled by good manners, he said, and “have a very hard time breaking through.”
So why devote so much of his professional life ruminating about them? “It’s the people I think I know,” he replied.
Will he miss them, and the weekly jolt of the show?
“No,” he replied. “No.”
If the "progressive" finds himself in admiration of such unprogressive folk as the citizens or Lake Wobegon or his own family, then he must not be as special as he thinks he is. And that can't be.
Regardless, I enjoy the Lake Wobegon shows, the Prairie Home Companion series. There's a vast collection of them on CD and DVD.