Cranky is very fortunate to have a well-heeled friend who takes her to places that a poor actress would never go: Turkey, a spa in Mexico and best of all, the Broadway play Hamilton.
The minute the curtain went up, I had this overwhelming feeling that this show is the essence of what it is to be American.
I never really thought much about feeling patriotic. It used to seem well, CORNY. And a territory for right-wing flag wavers. Until, however, I was once abroad, and a European made a derogatory remark about the United States and Cranky was LIVID. As soon as I was alone with my traveling partner, I went off, “How dare them! What did they ever do? We invented EVERYTHING! Electricity! Hello! The car! Hello! Airplanes! Hello! The telephone, the internet, the cotton gin! Oh, oh, and JAZZ and rock and roll. (Have you ever heard French or Italian attempts at rock – sad, sad). I might have been exaggerating a bit when I said EVERYTHING, but I was in the grip of a patriotic fervor. Which surprised me. “Wow, I thought, I love my country.”
Which is exactly the way I felt when I saw Hamilton. A multi-racial cast playing our Founding Fathers is emblematic if what this country is all about and what’s great about it. I felt so proud to be an American. A rapper with swagger cast as Jefferson was genius. The line in the show: “We’re immigrants we get things done,” elicited a cheer from the audience. It was a show of support for immigrants, and a screw you to New York City’s embarrassment of a native son, Donald Trump.
“Make America great again?” Dude, it is already great in so many ways.
Cranky Actress Blog 
I actually felt a bit patriotic myself just reading this…
I love the last line of this entry. DJT is the antithesis of the values that I hold. I’m a Conservative– no longer GOP– but, I’ve never felt so good about the Democrats as I do these days. DJT has done an amazing job of uniting the country– (true) Conservatives and Liberals– in opposition to his racist filth and tawdry demagoguery. Basic decency transcends party affiliation and ideology. DJTs recent stunt (Hillary meme with a Star of David against a field of dollar bills made me want to vomit. How many good men died in WWII to put an end to the demonic insanity of antisemitism?
When he announced his candidacy, I felt that it was crucial for there to be a principled opposition to him from principled conservatives. He really is OUR problem. There’s really not much Democrats can do about him until the general election.
Anyway, I’ve been on the road, since the primary season began. I have the luxury of being able to devote myself full-time to efforts to derail DJT.
I’ve never worked so hard in my life– 16 hour days, seven days a week, constant travel, and countless disappointments as the Orange Benito thwarts my best efforts to end his campaign.
Up until recently, those of us on the right opposed to Trump have called ourselves “the Renegades”– the name comes from DJT dismissing Bill Kristol (my friend, publisher of the Weekly Standard, and the most prominent anti-Trump spokesperson) as a “renegade Jew.” (!!!) Pathetic Sarah Palin tried to mock us by calling us RATs– Republicans Against Trump– and now we have proudly begun self-designating as RATs. These days I always refer to myself as a “proud Renegade and RAT.”
As one of the primary tactician for the anti-Trump forces, I will be heading to Cleveland in a few days. Right now, I’m up to my ears in parliamentary maneuvers, legal challenges, delegate nabbing, and all of the logistics entailed with a major effort to upend the convention from within. We have a command and control center set up already and the advance team is in place.
We may not succeed. But, at the very least, we’re going to put on a really good show in Cleveland– I have several surprises in store for the Trumpkins, and I have a few “secret weapons” ready to be deployed that will cause more than a few delegates to rethink supporting Trump. Or, so I hope. We’ll see.
And if we do not succeed in Cleveland, we’ll retreat and regroup. And we’ll fight on. We will never give up. We will never stop fighting. And I will continue to be in the thick of the fighting until the Orange Benito is utterly destroyed.
Or, I suppose, until I am destroyed, should he prevail.
I don’t care if the GOP implodes or disappears as a force in US politics. Any party that would nominate a gravely immoral sociopath and racist con man for President DESERVES to die, in my opinion.
If she can avoid indictment, HRC should cake walk to the White House, if I am successful. I’m no fan of hers, but I will rejoice in her victory as much as any lifelong Democrat, so long as it means Trump is defeated. I think of myself as a principled conservative. I am NOT a reactionary, nor am I a racist; I have no tolerance for anybody or any movement that smacks of fascism or South American styled despotism.
It really CAN “happen here.” And it will happen here, unless every decent person in America stands up and loudly condemns this dark and demonic insanity.
Not sure why I’m going on like this. My initial intent when I started to write this comment was to comment on “Hamilton” and to offer some of my opinions about the show. I’ll try to share my ideas about “Hamilton” in another comment when I next come up for air– even today, July 4th, I’m putting in a full day for the Renegades and the RATs.
I’m probably going off on this jag because I have not had a day off since Christmas and I have been totally and completely hyperfocused on the threat posed by DJT. Please forgive me for my torrent of verbiage!
Sorry that I couldn’t make the reading of your new play. I’d like to read it, if possible.
I hope that you are well. Know that I am
Yours,
Matthew
Glad to hear it! Remember the days of intellectual Republicans like William Buckley. Even though I’m a Democrat, I can appreciate another point of view. I actually sometimes agree with Pat Buchanan. But Donald Trump doesn’t belong in a Presidential race. His debate style is that of a Queens street kid: “Your mother wears army boots.”
Dear Gerry,
I met my wife at the offices of National Review, where she was an editor– in a sense, Bill Buckley brought us together. Bill’s sister Patricia is my daughter’s godmother. I like to think of myself as a principled conservative. But, ideology and policy positions mean a lot less to me than decency and values that transcend politics. If the match up was Trump against Bernie, I would enthusiastically vote for Bernie. I don’t agree with most of his positions, but at least he is a NORMAL human being, possessed of instincts, decency, and a kind of charming idealism. More than this, he’s an HONEST man. Nobody in America believes that the Orange Benito is honest. I’d rather live in the USA than, say, Uruguay. But, Trump’s entire schtick smacks of South American despotism and authoritarian idiocy. I despise racists, antisemites, and reactionaries of any sort. I’ve spent my 4th putting in another 16 hour day working to derail Trump. I will NEVER EVER stop fighting this demonic monster until he is utterly defeated. Never.
When and his can I read your new play? 🙂
I am
Yours, Matthew