The Road We’ve Traveled a Frightening Example of Propaganda
The Obama administration has recently released a brief 17 minute propaganda documentary, The Road We’ve Traveled, chronicling his take on his performance over the past four years. It’s a fully loaded attempt to spark the engines of all the unions and minorities to get back out there and prepare for the upcoming campaign. Narrated by none other than Larry Crowne himself, Tom Hanks, it’s complimented nicely by stills of thousands of adoring fans and silhouettes of Obama staring out an open window. This is going to be difficult to write on — for once, I am at a complete loss of words. Check the video, below.
And, if your attention spans are too short, here’s the acclaimed trailer:
I’m going to touch on this in three parts, because that’s the only way I can wrap my head around how the hell I’m seeing a video like this is in contemporary American society.
Tom Hanks: What happened to you, man? You broke on to the scene as a likable, if average looking, male lead starring in films such as Splash, Bachelor Party, Big and Joe Versus the Volcano. Then, you did the unthinkable. You went out there and rattled off a series of classics like no other actor has done before: Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Cast Away and finally Catch Me If You Can. You were my childhood. Thus, I could forgive your recent foray into titles like Larry Crowne or The Ladykillers. But, not this. This is too much. I don’t know if you’ve entered some sort of Nicolas Cage-esque financial woes, and had no choice but to sell yourself to the dear leader, but somehow, I doubt that’s the case. Shame on you for associating yourself with this kind of film, the worst kind. I tend to hate when celebrities, conservative or liberal, step out and share their political views. Like the vast majority of Americans, most celebrities are really stupid, and it’s the unfortunate truth that way too many people are more likely to be swayed by Sean Penn than sites like Politico or Al Jazeera. Needless to say, this inches out a few more clicks beyond one of those Entertainment Tonight celebrity political rants.
The Film’s Facts Suck: Before I go into the facts, and how they simply are not accurate, I want to know who came up with this title? What are we in? A sixth grade english class, reading Robert Frost? Talk about amateur hour. FactCheck.org has already beat me to the punch on this point, and they’ve outlined numerous factual inaccuracies enclosed within the 17 minute runtime. I mentioned FactCheck so you don’t think I’m pulling these numbers straight out of Brigham Young’s daily newspaper, The Universe. FactCheck is a decidedly left-leaning organization.
1. The film says “17 million kids could no longer be denied for preexisting conditions,” obviously implying that we had 17 million kids denied health care before the federal health care law was passed. False. This is the total number of kids who could maybe be denied healthcare if and only if they sought out healthcare on the individual market. That’s like saying that 20 million males could be sent to an underwater prison in 2013. But, that’s if and only if we suddenly decide to erect an utopian prison beneath the Pacific. Not a perfect analogy, but you get the idea.
2. The film suggests that “Obama refused to compromise on health care.” I’m sorry, then what the hell was all that raucous raised from liberals like Bill Maher attacking Obama for giving up the public option? The President even admitted that he only got “nine-tenths of a loaf.”
3. The last one I’m going to mention is also the most egregious. The film states, regarding the auto bailout, that the automakers have repaid their loans. First of all — congratulations. Shouldn’t be too difficult to right the ship when you’re handed $80 billion of taxpayer dollars. Speaking of that $80B, we paid for half of it, so the automakers have only paid back $40 billion — not the full $80,000,000,000. So while they’ve had some decent quarters, where the hell is our money? I’m yet to see a check in the mail.
The sad truth is that when you attach a pretentious title and hire a talented editor and Tom Hanks as a narrator, the American people are so stupid that they’ll fall for this bogus.
It’s Propaganda: As a self-titled film guy, I have at least some credibility when it comes to classifying the genre of The Road We’ve Traveled. I actually thought about this one quite a bit. The first thing that comes to mind is documentary, but that really doesn’t work. A simple “campaign film” or commercial isn’t it either. The answer (gulp), I’m afraid to say, is that the Obama administration has released their first entry into the art of propaganda.
It’s images like the one above that helped me reach my decision. I think you can figure out why. Glenn Beck has been taking a lot of heat recently for comparing The Road We’ve Traveled to the work of Nazi filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl. Now, normally I don’t like to side with Beck. The guy is little more than an entertainer, and ultimately just a big buffoon who has made a ton of cheddar. I’m with him on this one, though.
Riefenstahl’s most famous work is called, Triumph of the Will. Adolph Hitler served as its executive producer, and its overriding themes are the return of Germany as a great international power, and Hitler as the True German leader willing to bring glory back to the nation. It’s littered with clips of crowds waving their arms and speeches from prominent Nazi officials, and even Hitler himself.
Sure, The Road We’ve Traveled doesn’t posses the same triumphant music, but it’s also more modern. It still has a subtle, soothing epic behind the words. Skip around the video below, and see for yourself. The video should speak for itself. In the words of Forrest Gump, “stupid is as stupid does.” Let’s try and not fall for this one.