Monday Night at the Movies: Join Stefan Forbes, Director of Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Posted in: FDL Movie Night
Introducing Firedoglake Movie Nite
Stefan Forbes’ documentary Boogie Man tells the story of Lee Atwater, a regular Southern boy who fell in love with the politics of power and the power of politics. From his start managing a high school election, to his triumphant, sleazy maneuvering that put both Reagan and George H. W. Bush in the White House; Atwater was full of dirty tricks – from throwing out ballots in the National College Republican election to insure his protégé Karl Rove won, to smearing Dole and Dukakis – Strom Thurman’s former intern set his sights on being the man with power behind the man in power.
Forbes uses interviews with Atwater’s friends and opponents along with archival footage to shed light on the Republican’s happy hatchet man, who gleefully spread falsehoods and gossip in order for his candidates to win at any price.
Atwater "learned that you could play the hardest of hardball and win," pitting a Born-Again nobody against Max Heller, a Jewish immigrant and concentration camp survivor in the 1978 race for the House of Representatives. “Would you vote for a Jew that did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” became the message for the campaign. Heller lost.
Then in the 1980 congressional campaign, he spread the rumor that Democrat Tom Turnipseed had been "hooked up to jumper cables" as a teen undergoing electroshock therapy for depression. Turnipseed lost. And Atwater became a known quantity in Republican backroom politics.
Part of his drive, according to friends, came from growing up in the South, “the only part of America ever defeated in a war.” Atwater – who appears to have picked the Republicans as his team because he felt could go farther – focused on the South (and what he perceived as Southern values) as the heart and hearth of America, smearing John Connally in the 1980 presidential primary with the charge the governor was buying black votes; then launching Reagan’s campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were killed in 1964.
Reagan won, and Atwater slipped into Washington as the Special Assistant to the President for Political Affairs. In the 1988 presidential election he played the race card with the Willie Horton ads, costing Michael Dukakis the election. President Bush made him head of the Republican National Committee. Atwater was at the peak of his power.
“People vote their fears not their hopes,” said one of Atwater’s friends. And Atwater played on those fears; fears of convicted murders on the streets, fears of race, and fears of higher taxes. He got inside the enemy’s head, then the ultimate enemy got inside his: In 1990 Atwater was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. As he lay dying, he wrote letters of apologies, essays of apologies, seeking repentance, though not everyone bought his spin. He died March 29, 1991, and was buried on April Fool’s Day.
But despite the recanting, Atwater’s shameful legacy of smears, unsubstantiated allegations, and outright lies as a means to the White House lives on in American politics. Fear of "That One," the dark-skinned opponent with the strange name, is maximized with robo-calls, innuendo and fabrications. As director Stefan Forbes says on GritTv, Atwater’s playbook is still in use as seen by the choice of Palin and the avoidance of issues.
To watch Boogie Man is to see how politics was transformed by a good ole boy who loathed Yankees but brought New England Brahmins to power; who claimed he wasn’t racist but used race as a weapon to drive a wedge into the country; who brought out the worst in America in order to win at any price.
For a preview drop in at GritTV–they interviewed Stefan last month, and have some great clips. Plus, they are offering the DVD in their pledge drive going on at Free Speech TV right now.
Related posts:
Return to: Monday Night at the Movies: Join Stefan Forbes, Director of Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Social Web