I doubt that Michele Bachmann will be making any repeat appearances on The Jimmy Fallon Show. Apparently, his house band The Roots took the opportunity of her introduction to play the Fishbone song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” She of course was none the wiser. Now, naturally, the right-wing is comparing it to the NASCAR fans who recently booed the First and Second Ladies. And I guess that’s fair to a certain degree. A backbench member of the House making a late-night television appearance is definitely comparable to the wives of the president and vice-president making a pitch for military families at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.
If I were Jimmy Fallon, I’d be upset with my band. You don’t want to be known for screwing over your guests. But we are not at a time in our history where politicians of any stripe should expect to be respected. The president was interrupted by a mic check today during his speech in New Hampshire. Much like Palin begat the rude townhall tea partiers, the rude townhall tea partiers begat the rude mic checkers. And now it’s down to pranks on talk shows.
But there’s no one in America with less right to complain about lowering the quality of the discourse than Michele Bachmann.
I love mic checks. It’s so Marx Brothers/Bugs Bunny. I imagine politicians from both parties feeling all nervous, expecting someone to jump out at any minute and begin doing the human microphone thing. Sheer entertainment.
And y’know, Obama handled it well.
Unlike the Tea Partiers, the mic-checks break through the messaging bubble of politicians to delivers a brief, specific message. And then they are done.
Here is that message:
The crowd started chanting “Fired up. Ready to go.” to suppress the mic-check and then the President asked that he be allowed to speak first. Fortunately someone got a text of the mic-check to the President.
What is rude is the steps elected officials have taken to channel communications from voters into their preferred frame. The form letters you get in response to any communication with any Member of Congress have the same “you don’t know what you are talking about because you’re too stupid” air about them.
There is no equivalence here with the Tea Party’s attempt to suppress the interactions with members to present their own view as that of the majority.
The President did have some grace in his response to the Occupy New Hampshire folks. The President’s way of handling it was similar to the way Ron Paul handled being mic-checked. Which I found very interesting.
The fact that President Obama was mic-checked is further indication of the non-partisan nature of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Maybe they can completely link up with the ‘baggers and then they can both be pushed into the LaBrea Tar Pits.
Before being pushed in I imagine you’d want them pepper-sprayed again.
I appreciate how easy it is to be biased about partisan politics and I think I tend to overcompensate for that, but I really don’t think that tea party behavior at town halls and mic checking is a fair equivalence.
The OWS movement isn’t just another group of dissatisfied leftists who aren’t disciplined enough to learn how to work within the system. They’re by and large very disciplined and creative. This movement is too important not to understand early on.
By establishing an M.O. that they’ll mic check a brief statement and be done, they’re building a case for sympathetic speakers to just hear them out. Obama certainly isn’t getting the message from Geithner.
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@questlove
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."He’s also been a drummer in a number of jazz recordings – “The Philadelphia Project” comes to mind as well as Steve Williamson’s very much under-appreciated “Journey to Truth” album.
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Even a communist dictator gets jeers and boos
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Really…what happened to Michele is like the Nascar booing of the First lady. Nope. It was like what happened to Palin at the hockey game in Philly.
I don’t really feel bad for Bachmann. I guess in the interest of fairness I should be, but whatever.
Incidentally Boo, Jimmy Fallon needs The Roots way more than The Roots need him. So there is no real point in him getting upset.
The Roots have been and still are conscious hip-hop artist, much in the vane of Rage Against The Machine, IMHO. So this selection as a form of “protest” against Bachmann doesn’t surprise me and doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
Sorry.
You’re right on the money. If The Roots lost that gig, they’d still have their concert schedule, their next music releases, and that very extensive back catalog to draw from – as well as one hell of a loyal fan base.
The use of music as a form of civil disobedience has a pretty long history, and what The Roots apparently did last night would fit in with that history quite nicely. I recall reading how German jazz musician Jutta Hipp – a pianist – and her band would play banned American jazz songs during the Nazi era, and got away with it by giving the tunes politically correct (I use politically correct a bit differently than a lot of folks do) titles. Her audience at the clubs was hip to what she was doing and really appreciated it. The various Nazi officials who would frequent the clubs occasionally were every bit as clueless as Bachmann apparently was last night on Fallon’s show.
Lena Horne
Right on! 🙂
The Roots do this all the time to Fallon’s guests. They played something like “Baby Got Back” for Serena Williams. I can’t think of another example, but there are zillions.
I don’t really feel bad for Bachmann. I guess in the interest of fairness I should be, but whatever.
Incidentally Boo, Jimmy Fallon needs The Roots way more than The Roots need him. So there is no real point in him getting upset.
The Roots have been and still are conscious hip-hop artist, much in the vane of Rage Against The Machine, IMHO. So this selection as a form of “protest” against Bachmann doesn’t surprise me and doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
Sorry.
DAMAN…DUPLICATE.
Maybe mic checks are lowering the discord. Maybe not.
But I think the way Obama handled it, even telling people to let them speak, hugely raised the discourse.
Quite effectively simply he said to everyone: “Listen, because I’m willing to listen”
And his ad lib remarks also showed either he was authentic or at least not tone deaf.
Other leaders who think they can shout back and out shout do themselves (or us) no favor.