Originally Posted by sodascouts
A key part of this effort to harness non-traditional modes of political speech began 13 months ago when, while campaigning in the Bakersfield area, I saw a fading Obama bumper sticker on a Prius. Instantly, the line, “Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac, a little voice inside my head said: don’t look back, you can never look back,” from the Don Henley song “The Boys of Summer” popped into my head.
- Chuck DeVore
I have to imagine that the good folks here have examined what Henley was after with the original line.... essentially that the apotheosis of subsumption of culture would be when the folks who support the dead, the symbol of the counterculture, the people who 'dropped out' of traditional, conservative culture would devolve into the ultimate symbol of consumption and American conservatism--> the cadillac.
The image of a 'fading' Obama bumper sticker on a Prius isn't the same kind of juxtaposition at all. In fact, it really doesn't make any sense in relation to the original quote... it is a kind of false irony or orthogonalism that folks use when they either A) don't get it or B) are intentionally trying to twist a point in order to redirect a debate and confuse those who are paying attention.
I have certainly seen my share of people who will go to any length in order to 'win'... In Devore's case, he did something wrong and now all we see is the wrangling and wriggling to try to make something 'right' out of it. Like so many things these days, the point of Henley's contention will be lost in a flurry of nonsense, ultimately growing more confused until the debate devolves into a simple right vs. left emotional standoff.
His bowdlerization of Henley's original line is a pretty clear example of what appears to be his main tactic---> provide heat rather than light.