By M.G. Wood

February 7, 2008

After Jimmy Carter served four difficult years as a down to earth Christian soldier who failed to transform America from the blood-soaked-criminal-Frankenstein that Lyndon Johnson and Dick Nixon created in the late Sixties and early Seventies, America circa 1980 was a junkie in need of a fix. And along came Reagan, riding in on a horse with a saddle bag brim full of fairy dust and rainbows to sweep America into a dreamland not seen since the 1950’s.

While the Republican candidates debate who will inherit the conservative political mantel of Ronald Reagan, and the Democrats debate who might inherit Reagan’s charismatic mantel; those of us who while away our time within the cultural realm of this American life have a wholly different agenda, a far less serious and a far less important agenda; a question found in a more philosophical and some may even say existential place; a question that only people steeped in the lore of nostalgia and postmodernism dare face: which political candidate for the highest office in the land most exudes the Polo scent of past winds, radiates the New Wave of change, armors themselves in the paisley parsonage of thin ties and alligator shirts; Who is the true descendent of the Nostalgic Era to end all Nostalgic Eras, the 1980’s.

It seems in many ways that this entire 2008 political season is koyaanisqatsi. The Republicans, known for their discipline and lock-step allegiance are in disarray. Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to be focused and resolute. And again, as one who sees the world through a Pop Culture prism, the strangeness is compounded by the fact that the Democrats are the ones playing the Nostalgia card. Hillary Clinton appealing to the people who have fond memories of the 1990’s, a decade that her husband molded, based in part on ideals he inhaled as a young man in the 60’s.

While it was the 1980’s that proved to be the formative years for Barack Obama, as he made his way through the decade as a young law student and political activist; thus explaining his comparative analogy that Ronald Reagan was in his own way a transformative “agent of change”.

Now, it’s almost impossible to link Obama and the 80’s without referencing The Cosby Show. For not only was there a time in this country when it was unfathomable that a black man could legitimately have a shot at being President, but there was actually a time when it seemed unrealistic, even controversial to portray an African-American family as affluent, happy, and loving. It seems a natural leap to assume the young voters who are turning out for Obama in massive numbers were regular viewers of The Cosby Show, considering the show was the #1 television show through most of the 1980’s.

The Cosby Show’s incredible run of success was partnered with another successful family sitcom Family Ties; a show in which a Young Republican character named Alex P. Keaton outshined his stale white bread Hippie parents. Alex P. Keaton was played by Michael J. Fox of Back To The Future (1985), and in a twist of twisted irony, after playing a character worshiped by many a Republican, Mr. Fox would later be ridiculed by another iconic Republican character Rush Limbaugh; Limbaugh going so far as to accuse Mr. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, of exaggerating his symptoms in order to score political points for John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for President in 2004.

What will John McCain’s history and cultural relevance portray if he prevails as the Republican’s nominee for President? While he is proclaiming himself to have been a “foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution”, his actual pedigree is far more in line with that of Hillary Clinton. The most significant aspect in the cultural narrative of John McCain is as the heroic survivor of the Hanoi Hilton, a Vietnamese prison camp insensitively dubbed such by Hippie activist Jane Fonda. Thereby forever linking the 72-year-old war hero to the 1960’s, right along side the Clintons.

In this unusually entertaining election year, we may be witnessing the final death rattle emanating from deep within the bowels of the 1960’s. The Age of Aquarius is dead, deader than Jerry Garcia; and the dead don’t change, the dead don’t transform, but into dust.

This summer Americans will gather in air-conditioned theaters across the country and watch as Indiana Jones returns to fight another day, just like in days of yore when another fictional character lorded over the American landscape, Ronald Reagan.