DamnYankee
Loyal to the end
I picked up a "Deluxe Edition" DVD of Magnum Force a while back and watched it last night. There is a short commentary included titled The Politics of Dirty Harry that was actually very interesting. In it the directors, producers, writers, and several actors, including Clint Eastwood, discuss the first four Dirty Harry films in the political perspective of the early 1970's.
For those of you who don't know, the films depicted a controversial San Fransisco detective who had a habit of killing his suspects during their apprehension. In the first film, Harry battles a liberal judicial system, in the second, a gang of cop vigilantes. The villain in the third film is a left-wing extremist group, and in the fourth, again a vigilante. In this way Harry appears to be politically centrist.
First, every one of the commentators stated that he was liberal, except for Eastwood, who we all know is libertarian-conservative.
But what really is striking is the way these liberals describe their political beliefs. They admit that the liberal view is easy on criminals and that sometimes they wish that someone would take a no-nonsense approach and just get rid of the bad guys. But they describe the vigilantes in the films as 'right wing, fascists', as if the two terms are related.
In reality Harry's views are mainstream conservative, which explains why the films were so popular. He respects the law even when he doesn't agree with it, because without laws society would degrade to anarchy. The fascists that the liberals created are simply their view of what the right wing is all about; a classic straw man tactic of logical fallacy.
The fact is that fascism has always been a liberal-socialist reaction when their policies are not accepted by a democratic majority, or when their agenda cannot be achieved through the existing legal structure: from Hitler and Mussolini in the 1930's to Obama-Pelosi-Reid in the 2000's.
For those of you who don't know, the films depicted a controversial San Fransisco detective who had a habit of killing his suspects during their apprehension. In the first film, Harry battles a liberal judicial system, in the second, a gang of cop vigilantes. The villain in the third film is a left-wing extremist group, and in the fourth, again a vigilante. In this way Harry appears to be politically centrist.
First, every one of the commentators stated that he was liberal, except for Eastwood, who we all know is libertarian-conservative.
But what really is striking is the way these liberals describe their political beliefs. They admit that the liberal view is easy on criminals and that sometimes they wish that someone would take a no-nonsense approach and just get rid of the bad guys. But they describe the vigilantes in the films as 'right wing, fascists', as if the two terms are related.
In reality Harry's views are mainstream conservative, which explains why the films were so popular. He respects the law even when he doesn't agree with it, because without laws society would degrade to anarchy. The fascists that the liberals created are simply their view of what the right wing is all about; a classic straw man tactic of logical fallacy.
The fact is that fascism has always been a liberal-socialist reaction when their policies are not accepted by a democratic majority, or when their agenda cannot be achieved through the existing legal structure: from Hitler and Mussolini in the 1930's to Obama-Pelosi-Reid in the 2000's.
