A Newsletter With An Eye On Political Media from The American Prospect
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A NEWSLETTER WITH AN EYE ON POLITICAL MEDIA

Here's What's Really Behind the News

Some serious scholarship (and some Springsteen and Sinatra)

**** The news from the White House, Mar-a-Lago, Georgia voting booths,
Jerusalem backroom negotiations, and wherever the heck Elon Musk lives
has been rather overwhelming of late. But I think the punditocracy, both
social and professional, have it covered to the point where I can attend
to one of the primary goals of this column, which is to bring
significant scholarship about important political issues to bear on the
arguments about them. So here are a few for today, and I expect to
continue this through the end of the year (along with more music and
only a little book promotion). Warning: You may need an institutional
affiliation or to go through a library in order to access some of the
links below.

* "It's About Hate: Approval of Donald Trump, Racism, Xenophobia
and Support for Political Violence
<[link removed]>." Trump
supporters in the study disproportionately exhibit racist and
xenophobic/anti-foreigner attitudes, and these attitudes are associated
with a positive endorsement of both January 6th and the use of political
violence.

* There is no such thing as "antifa."
<[link removed]> (I'll bet you
suspected that.)

* Relatedly, violent extremism in America is a far-right phenomenon,
period
<[link removed]>.
(All bothsidesing of this danger is therefore total bullshit.)

* Also relatedly, even for "strong, partisan" conservatives,
consistent exposure to the lies on Fox News leads viewers to an even
more "biased set of facts" as well as "concealed negative
information about President Trump." Not only does it "present its
side an electoral advantage-it may present a challenge for democratic
accountability." <[link removed]>

* Further relatedly, "more ideologically extreme users are exposed
to more misinformation-but, interestingly, this association is
stronger among users estimated to be conservative compared to users
estimated to be liberal
<[link removed]>."

* (Ultimately) conservatives win in U.S. politics despite the
unpopularity of their policies because
<[link removed]>:

(a) the Republican Party has rejected democratic political norms and has
moved further right, promoted stronger identity formation, and allied
with less conflictual policy demanders than Democrats.

(b) U.S. electoral institutions allow Republicans to rule without
winning majorities of voters.

(c) Long-standing institutional political features hinder the passage of
national legislation, which progressive movements require, while
granting Republican officials control over legislative processes even
when they are out of power.

(d) Conservative movements and Republicans also benefit enormously from
a partisan media machine, with nothing equivalent for progressive
movements and Democrats.

The above are all related to a similar theme. I hope to have more in the
next few weeks, but that will be more of a hodgepodge of things I've
been saving during the past year.

In the meantime, yes, my book We Are Not One: A History of America's
Fight Over Israel
<[link removed]>
was published last week (after only 40 years in the making). Peter
Beinart called it a "a terrific intellectual and political history"
in his weekly newsletter. Here <[link removed]>
is an excerpt from Lit Hub about the impact on American Jews of the 1967
War. Oh, and I love this opening line in this review published by the
Jewish Book Council
<[link removed]>:
"Eric Alterman, long-time media critic for The Nation magazine, has
written a history of America's relationship to Zionism and the State
of Israel that is likely to anger a significant segment of readers-for
different reasons." (I'm Eric Alterman and I endorse that message.)

Here are some taped interviews/discussions dealing with the book's
content:

* With Americans for Peace Now
<[link removed]>

* With Haaretz
<[link removed]>

* With Yonit Levy and Jonathan Freedland of Unholy
<[link removed]>

* With Robert Wright of Bloggingheads.TV
<[link removed]>

I will be discussing the book with UCLA's Dov Waxman on December 8 at
1:00 Eastern time and you can sign up here
<[link removed]> to join in real
time. I'll also be speaking at the J Street conference
<[link removed]> in Washington this
weekend, if you are there and want to say hello. Oh, and I will be on
MSNBC with Mehdi Hasan <[link removed]> this Sunday
evening sometime between 8:00 and 9:00.

Regarding recent developments in Israel unrelated to my magnum opus,
I'd recommend this piece
<[link removed]>
by Joshua Leifer in The New York Review of Books, and this piece
<[link removed]>
by Alon Pinkas in Haaretz.

[link removed]

The overwhelmingness of politics has kept me from doing justice to the
music I care about, as well, so first things first. Bruce Springsteen
has a new album out called Only the Strong Survive and it's made up of
old soul songs. It's a rather conservative album with regard to the
fact that the arrangements pretty much mimic the originals. It's also
really fun. Bruce's voice (at 73) has never sounded better, and the
song selection is both familiar and surprising. A few of the numbers are
strangely moving. His version of the Commodores' "Night Shift"
<[link removed]>
legit makes me tear up every time. All of the above are the reasons I
found this article
<[link removed]>
in The Atlantic so silly. When David Hajdu writes, "It's just
pointless, because it adds nothing to our understanding or appreciation
of the music-or of its singer," he is writing as a holier-than-thou
rock critic rather than someone who actually likes to listen to music. I
mean, even if it does add "nothing to our understanding," so what?
It was fun for Bruce and it's fun for the listener (as well the viewer
of these wonderful videos).

Why, exactly, is that a bad thing? Is the world such a wonderful place
it can't stand a little more fun? But far worse than the above, is
Hajdu's performative woke-ism in this
putative-high-falutin'-but-actually-crazy judgment: "[T]here remains
something off-putting and simply off in this high-profile presentation
of a successful white man singing Black music, even in ardent homage."
Really? Has Mr. Hajdu ever heard of Elvis Presley? Mick Jagger? John
Lennon? Gregg Allman? Peter Wolf? This is to say nothing of the
educative value of the album, which comes with information about the
songwriters of each of the songs, and undoubtedly will send some fans
back to the originals, just as six decades ago, Stones and Beatles fans
discovered Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Arthur Alexander, and Willie Dixon,
among many others. (It will also serve the estates of the songwriters.)
I mean Rully, this professor needs to go back to rock 'n' roll high
school <[link removed]>.

(Here
<[link removed]>,
here
<[link removed]>,
and here
<[link removed]>
are the above-mentioned Springsteen videos.)

****

I saw three live performances recently that I can't fully do justice
to in the space I allot for these things, but I can try. The first is
someone you've almost certainly never heard of. His name is Richard
Shelton <[link removed]>, but if you go see him, as I did
at the Green Room <[link removed]> inside Yotel, you'll
feel like you're in the room with a sour-talking but
wonderful-sounding Frank Sinatra. His show, "Sinatra: RAW" takes
place (allegedly) in 1971 at The Purple Room in Palm Springs as Sinatra
is facing one of his many faux retirements. (The man had pretend-quit
the business more times than The Who.) More than mere mimicry, it's a
genuinely moving and, musically speaking, deeply satisfying experience.

I actually saw Sinatra quite late in his career at the Kennedy Center. I
bought a ticket for $15 from one of the Flying Karamazov Brothers right
before he had to go on stage for the opening act. (Boy, was he pissed at
how cheaply he had to sell it to me.) Anyway, Frank was 67 at the time,
and it was long past "quarter to three" for "the voice." All
those cigarettes and booze had turned that marvelous instrument into
just a voice, and one that cracked at every remotely high note. When I
saw Shelton, he was a better Sinatra than Sinatra had been. (He also
took requests: I got "That's Life," Frank's greatest statement
about just being Frank, and Shelton killed it.)

****

When I am feeling extremely fancy, or even better, when someone else is
paying, I check into who is playing at the Café Carlyle. If it turns
out to be John Pizzarelli <[link removed]> and his
better half (at least), Jessica Molaskey, I know I am in for an evening
of not only fun, but also education (which for me, at least, makes
everything more fun). The couple does regular residencies in that
beautiful room (where a steak and fries will set you back $60 before tax
and tip), and their most recent gig there was among my favorites of the
half dozen or so times I've seen them (which I've also done in
cheaper places). It was called "East Side After Dark." It was a
tribute to late mid-century New York café culture of the kind I yearned
to enter in my teens and twenties-maybe even thirties-but could
never dream of affording. John and Jessica mix their own history along
with some corny jokes with actual historical context for every song they
play and sing, while the band, led by John, hits a sweet spot in jazz
that is melodic yet also inventive and fresh. Both are reasons why the
room was packed despite the exorbitant cover price, etc., and one could
tell from their warm welcome, many in the crowd were repeaters, not just
hotel-guest oligarchs (like the folks sitting next to my partner and
myself, but at least they were well behaved). Tune in to their wonderful
weekly internet radio show here
<[link removed]>.

****

If you were to ask me, "Eric, who is the person whose level of fame is
most inconsistent with their talent and originality?" I would have an
easy answer: Tammy Faye Starlite. I wrote about her last show here
<[link removed]>,
where she created a character she called "Tamar," a nutty Israeli
legend in her own mind, who sang what Tammy called "Ashkenazi-textured
Europop." This time, also at fun and funky (and decidedly affordable)
Pangea <[link removed]> in the East Village, I was expecting
her Mick Jagger guise, à la her legendary "Mike Hunt Band," and we
got some of that, but it was more lovingly "Mock Jagger"-get it? I
made that up-along with some Bowie and a healthy dose of her
long-running, so-intense-it's-almost-scary Marianne Faithfull tribute.
The proof is here
<[link removed]> and
here <[link removed]>
with Tammy as Marianne and here
<[link removed]> as
Nico circa the Velvet Underground days and here
<[link removed]> in
the Mike Hunt Band. Catch her if you can.

****

See you next week.

~ ERIC ALTERMAN

Become A Member of The American Prospect Today!
<[link removed]>

Eric Alterman is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn
College, an award-winning journalist, and the author of 12 books, most
recently

**We Are Not One: A History of America's Fight Over Israel** (Basic
Books, November 2022). Previously, he wrote The Nation's "Liberal
Media" column for 25 years. Follow him on Twitter @eric_alterman
<[link removed]>

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