The 10 Best Political Videos You've (Probably) Never Seen
Thousands of “post-partisan” citizens who discovered on January 20 that they are very much opposed to federal deficits are taking to the streets today in what’s being billed by its supporters as the most significant anti-tax demonstration since 1773, when that early American flash-mob action, the Boston Tea Party, served to raise general awareness of British perfidy in the realm of revenues. But the success of today’s tea party circuit in winning hearts and minds may hinge on whether or not the gatherings result in any iconic YouTube videos of the sort that register with the American public at large. Most likely, they won’t. Thus it is that we present a gaggle of the lesser-known political clips of yesteryear, tax-free.
10. Nixon on Bohemian Grove, San Francisco, and the Homos To Be Found Therein
In one of the more colorful of the secret audio-tape excerpts to have emerged in subsequent years, Nixon waxes homophobic on San Francisco’s homo-friendly upper class before segueing into a short lecture on Bohemian Grove, an invitation-only outdoor extravaganza that plays host each year to an all-male guest list of presidents, defense contractors, and Rockefeller hangers-on. For his part, Nixon describes it as “the most faggy goddamn thing you can imagine.” And although Nixon’s imagination in this regard is probably limited, he’s not entirely alone in his assessment: Bill Clinton once described the California club gatherings as being “where all those rich Republicans go up and stand naked against the redwood trees.”
9. Dole on Something-or-Other
While Gerald Ford was busy being Gerald Ford, 1976 vice-presidential hopeful Bob Dole was busy being Bob Dole, which is not a particularly good thing for a vice-presidential hopeful to be. Asked about his earlier condemnation of Nixon’s Watergate pardon, in light of his current status as potential No. 2 man to the fellow who gave the pardon in the first place, Dole retorts that, although this was “an appropriate topic,” it was not “a very good issue.” He then helpfully notes that World War I, World War II, and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam had all been “Democrat wars” which had left many Americans killed or wounded. So, there you go.
8. Lyndon LaRouche Blasts Mondale and His Nefarious Paymasters
Like those youngish supporters of his to whom I once unwisely provided my phone number out of curiosity, “independent Democrat” Lyndon LaRouche is incapable of uttering even a couple of sentences without saying something confusing; this is a movement of people who hold strong opinions on the allegedly negative sociological impact of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s later symphonies. Veteran skimmers of LaRouchian pamphlets will not be surprised, then, to see the big man himself announce that Walter Mondale is not only “a K.G.B. agent in the ordinary sense,” but also owned in part by “the grain cartel interests,” which is certainly a strange thing by which to be owned, even if only in part.
7. Americans Turn to George Wallace
The general thrust of this George Wallace presidential campaign ad from 1968 is this: if you fail to vote for the Alabama governor, someone is likely to throw a firebomb through the window of the discount television store that you just opened. That particular someone, the context suggests, may be presumed to be a rioting Negro or some such and not Wallace himself, angrily retaliating against those who opposed his pro-segregation presidential bid. The ad also notes that your school-aged children are in danger of being “bused across town” to be educated alongside black children, where they will perhaps learn to make their own firebombs. And thus the circle of life is complete.
6. Nixon on the Espionage Capabilities of Jews
When Mark Felt was identified as Deep Throat, in 2005, former Nixon speech writer Ben Stein was very angry indeed, comparing the aging Watergate informant’s face to that of “one of those old Nazi war criminals” and wondering aloud how Felt—whom Stein believed to be “at least part Jewish”—could have betrayed his fellow Jews by turning against a president who was concurrently “saving Eretz Israel” and otherwise providing “salvation” to the Jewish people as a whole. It’s hard to disagree with Stein’s reasoning as one listens to the former president compliment the Hebrews with such lack of reservation, noting that “Jews are born spies” due in part to the “strange malignancy” and “arrogance” that he’s observed in that particular tribe. Nixon then goes on to worry aloud over how ashamed Kissinger must feel over the general perfidy of his Jewish brethren, which is also quite touching. Ah, Ben Stein.
5. Reagan On “What’s My Line?”
This cannot be described.
4. Prescott Bush Turns on the Charm, Such As It Is
Herein lies a rare look at the first political notable of the Bush clan, as well as an early specimen of the public affairs program. For his part, the Senator from Connecticut comes off as rather articulate for a fellow who appears to have been drinking, though he lacks the genial charm of his most prominent grandson and even of his most prominent son. Had he been an actor and not a politician, he would have almost certainly been typecast as someone whose nefarious plans are foiled towards the end of the film. This isn’t so much a criticism of Bush as it is of Hollywood movies of the time, which, as people often forget, were generally pretty bad.
3. William Buckley and Gore Vidal Hold Pompous Asshole Contest
Though the two are better known for their earlier ABC debate, in which Vidal called Buckley a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley called Vidal a “queer,” this later segment, in which the two pundits are wisely kept in separate rooms, is somewhat more representative of their respective approaches to rhetoric. Here, both are at the top of their craft (to the extent that pretentiousness can be considered a craft), but Buckley manages to steal the show with his extended quotation of some very surreal “hippie play.” The clip ends with an unusually well-produced Pepsi commercial in which it is announced that the soft drink will give you “zap.”
2. Nixon Campaign Makes What May Well Have Been an Effective Ad by the Standards of 1972
This conservative bid for the youth vote makes liberal use of still shots depicting youngsters who are hip enough to perhaps convince other youngsters that Nixon is far out and whatnot but not so hip that they might be actual hippies. The accompanying song, like every song that ever accompanied anything in the early 70s, is terrible and ought never to have been written.
1. Nixon Plays His Piano Concerto
Look, I just think Nixon was an interesting guy.