There Is Nothing Wrong With Moony, Irrational Exuberance

Do not be embarrassed by optimism.

Will Leitch

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There is a scene, a great one among so so many, in the film Boyhood that I have been thinking about all week, this wild, exhilarating, foundation-rattling six days in American history, six days when a deadening sense of resignation that the world wasn’t ever going to snap back to normal was replaced by a legitimate rush of hope and enthusiasm, even euphoria. The scene takes place in 2008, when Mason and Samantha, the kids played by Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater that the film follows over 12 years of their lives, are out putting up lawn signs for Barack Obama, largely because their unreliable but good-hearted father (Ethan Hawke) is a supporter. The kids like Obama, but, really, they’re just trying to make their dad happy. After running into a man who scowls “do I look like a supporter of Barack Hussein Obama? This is private property, get off. I could shoot you,” (Mason just shrugs), the kids talk to a woman on her front step. She is thrilled by what they are doing. Very thrilled.

“I love it,” she says. She’s a white woman and a mom, who alternates between frenzied mania and utterly vacant exhaustion in a way that feels even more familiar a decade later. “Obama supporters out on the trail, this is great! … We’ve just got to pull together to get this win…

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Will Leitch

Author seven books, including “How Lucky” "The Time Has Come" and "Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride." NYMag/MLB. Founder Deadspin. https://williamfleitch.substack.com