09.10.10
Big in Fond-Du-Lac
A NY Times column noted by Digby puts forward the mainstreaming of extremism and incivility as normal public discourse, a point I’ve made in connection with Ted Nugent all summer.
The NY Times thing is by author Rick Perlstein and the jump-out graf is this:
The problem is that elite media gatekeepers have abandoned their moral mandate to stigmatize uncivil discourse. Instead, too many outlets reward it. In fact, it is an ironic token of the ideological confusions of our age that they do so in the service of upholding what they understand to be a cornerstone of civility: the notion that every public question must be framed in terms of two equal and opposite positions, the “liberal” one and the “conservative” one, each to be afforded equal dignity, respect — and (the more crucial currency) equal space. This has made the most mainstream of media outlets comically easy marks for those actively working to push public discourse to extremes.
And so the mainstream is now defined by a balance between the reasonable and a demographic that represents nothing but the worst from the American fringe haunch — cranks, kooks and bigots, all aimed at tearing down what any modern western nation should stand for.
The media has no skin in this game, though. It has nothing to lose when it gives the crazies the megaphone.
Its marquee employees are all upper class and they’ll do fine, even when the nation lurches into disaster if the insane take over a part of government in November. It’s more entertainment for them, more opportunities for bigtime books on the subject, more television face time. More of everything while the rest shrivel up in the decay outside the mansions.
But back to Ted Nugent who was on radio prior to his Labor Day weekend show in Detroit.
Blabbermouth has the entirety of it here.
The only parts of interest on this blog are Ted making excuses about his hunting screw-up and the standard misrepresentations of his various accomplishments.
I did a rough transcript and after exchanging opening pleasantries, Ted is asked about his hunting violations.
“What a klusterbuck the court system is. I wish I could talk more about it now but it’s still ongoing … Bottom line, I broke no laws.”
It was, Ted insists, part of a campaign against his Spirit of the Wild program. Animal rights activists and others who hate him watch it for all transgressions and harass him regularly.
“They monitor my Spirit of the Wild program … because it’s California they are overwhelmed with people who really can’t stand me …”
Ted explains that on his show he is shown killing three deer with captions saying when he shot them properly. One in one calendar year, two in another. But that this was used against him.
“Here it is … This is the perfect point, on this one show, I killed three deer, you’re only allowed two a year. We got thousands of calls at our office, people squallering that I killed three deer in one year…”
The conversation moves to the Park51 prayer center.
“Well, I would certainly welcome you guys [to my website]. On my website you see literally thousands and thousands of columns.”
Ted refers to his opinions at the Washington Times and Human Events.
“I get more hits than almost everybody … I reflected what I think is common sense America … I can’t think of anything more cruel and more intentionally outrageous than the Japanese building a monument at Pearl Harbor in 1942 …
“This imam … the jury is still out … he is not a friend of America.”
The radio DJ’s say the man is in the employ of the US State Department.
That is because, Ted replies, “We have the Mao Tse Tung Fan Club in the Whitehouse.”
Here is what Nugent wrote about the issue at the Washington Times, none of which is actually re-read on the air:
“Slice it any way you want, but the Muslim community is being tremendously rude and stupid for wanting to build a mosque so close to Ground Zero in New York City. Instead of using the $100 million for their proposed mosque, I recommend that the Muslims donate the cash to the U.S. military so we can build more smart bombs to kill more radical, voodoo Muslims …
“Not all Muslims are religious whacks who deserve a bullet …”
“Where the Muslims will claim they are wanting to build bridges, they will stab you in the eye less than a mile from Ground Zero,” Ted tells the DJ’s at one point.
The conversation moves on to Mexico, Arizona and illegal immigration. At one point Ted insinuates terrorists are coming over the border. The code is “otm’s” for other-than-Mexicans.”
On the President: “This guy is out of his mind.”
The DJ’s chime in: “Harry Reid and these sons of bitches …”
When the interview finally gets to music, Ted informs he would really like to have Kid Rock on his next album.
Nugent adds that he drew “45,000 at Fond-Du-Lac. I hold the the attendance record at every county fair in Wisconsin.”
While there is no reason to doubt the last sentence on being big in the hinterlands of Wisconsin, the reality is a little more nuanced:
From the local Fond-Du-Lac Reporter, actually reprinted at tednugent.com:
45,000 turn out for Fair
July 28, 2010
Ted Nugent brought out the fans for this year’s Fond du Lac County Fair.
About 45,000 people attended the 159th Fair, held July 20-25 at the County Fairgrounds on Martin Avenue. Fair Manager Matt Immel said it’s an impressive figure, considering how much it rained during this year’s event.
Saturday recorded the highest attendance of any day, with 15,000 people passing through the gates. Immel said Ted Nugent drew the big crowd; his concert sold 700 VIP tickets. The fair normally sells 600 VIP tickets at $15 apiece, but there was enough demand to add more seats.
Over five days, of which Ted Nugent was there on one, the fair drew 45,000. One third came on Saturday when Nugent played the grandstand. Common sense requires the concession that not everyone was there to see and hear Ted Nugent.
A picture of the grandstand is here.
It is a bit underwhelming, much like Pine Grove Area High School’s football field grandstand, or any outdoor bleechers in some out of the way place.
For the purposes of comparison and conversation, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena holds 92,000, twice the capacity reported over five days at the Fond-du-Lac fair.
DD thinks readers can agree the Fond-du-Lac fair grandstand is not even close to a quarter of the Rose Bowl, which would be a generous 25,000.
DD thinks 700 to 1,000 is about right, absolute tops.
Ted Nugent was also recently reviewed in Des Moines — by a reporter for Grand View College’s student newspaper.
Ted Nugent didn’t waste a minute making his political views heard on Wednesday at the 7 Flags Event Center. The 62-year-old Nuge rocked the stage in front of 2,000 “American Blood Brothers.”
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For a man who hasn’t released an album in over 15 years (wrong — but irrelevant to the essence of the review), Ted has a surprisingly large following. The majority of the crowd was at least 50 years old. That might be how I arrived 45 minutes before the doors opened, was the seventh person in the doors and stood front row for the entire show.
The stage was filled with big guns, small guns, machine guns, grenades and an air brushed canvas backdrop that showed Ted yielding guns and driving a tank over the top of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
The show wasn’t all political bashing, however. Ted took the stage and played four songs before stopping to catch his breath and welcome the sold out crowd. He was welcomed with an arousing ovation from the mix of military personnel, hunters, veterans and rock enthusiasts.
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The show wasn’t all redneck racism. Ted, being from Detroit, recognized his influences, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, by playing a few covers that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Nugent preached to always remember where you come from and thank those who made you who you are today.
As an avid hunter and rock and roll fan, I found the Ted Nugent concert to be an awesome experience.
“The show wasn’t all redneck racism.” Good to know.
Dick Destiny » Nugent’s Muslim Thing said,
September 19, 2010 at 10:52 pm
[…] after a mediocre tour of the US heartland’s fairgrounds and casinos, has been labelled a bigot by even his staunchest fans. He has been noticeably condemned in red state […]