[Editors Note: Unpresidenital Eastwoodian salty language ahead. Weekly Standard staffers beware.]
Clint Eastwood weighs in on political correctness, Donald Trump, and “the pussy generation” in a new interview with Esquire that will remind you why Clint is Clint and you’re not. Clint belongs to a generation that didn’t do a lot of the navel-gazing that has been so popular since the 1960s and one that is unapologetically pro-American. You can see it in Clint’s movies.
It’s a wide-ranging interview with Esquire Clint offers some advice to the younger generation – and at 86 the younger generation includes almost everyone. The whole thing is worth reading but here are a few of the money-quotes.
But he’s onto something, because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now. We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist. And then when I did Gran Torino, even my associate said, “This is a really good script, but it’s politically incorrect.” And I said, “Good. Let me read it tonight.” The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, “We’re starting this immediately.’
And this:
I haven’t endorsed anybody. I haven’t talked to Trump. I haven’t talked to anybody. You know, he’s a racist now because he’s talked about this judge. And yeah, it’s a dumb thing to say. I mean, to predicate your opinion on the fact that the guy was born to Mexican parents or something. He’s said a lot of dumb things. So have all of them. Both sides. But everybody—the press and everybody’s going, “Oh, well, that’s racist,” and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just fucking get over it. It’s a sad time in history.
And for who doesn’t understand Trump’s rhetoric and needs a Trump to Williamsburg translator, start with this. It seemed to work for the kid in the movie:
Just please, spare us any facile comparisons about Trump and the angry white male voter. No matter what your life coach says, that’s not Clint’s point, it’s not what motivates Trump voters, and Gran Torino is about way more than an old guy who wants the local kids off his lawn. If the permanently offended take Clint’s advice and get over it, they might find that Gran Torino says a lot about what’s great about America but is slipping away in the chaos of identity politics.