Robin Williams has such a brilliant stream of consciousness style, it almost feels like I shouldn???t interrupt him with these little text write-arounds. But I think I'd be excommunicated from the journalist society or something. At least, I should mention that the following diatribe comes from his promotional tour for the movie Man of the Year in which he plays a comic talk show host running for president. Between his character's speeches and the film's story of a voting machine error, the subject unleashed Williams' feelings about the state of politics today.
"If you???re a Democrat, you're going, "Gosh, we're doing well," Williams said in his sarcastic voice. "If you???re a republican you're going, "Fuck 'em." But I think it's the idea that what's working well right now? Are we as a country doing very well? Are we actually functioning to the best of our abilities? How do we do? If you look at most countries, how do we stand in the world? How do we stand nationally? How come we have not rebuilt New Orleans? How do you do that? How do you function through that and how do you deal with all the different things? And both sides, and not the idea of divisive politics but the idea of united as in U.S. being us and the idea of working together and disagreeing and able to work it out. And I???m glad we did because it's just to address it all."
Nowadays politicians do more good after they leave office. "A lot of these guys you meet, like at the Clinton library, all the ex-presidents were so happy. Even Gore describes himself, it's almost like he's been to PA, Politics Anonymous. He says, 'I'm a former candidate,' like now he's freed up to be more himself and can talk about issues he's adamant about versus when he was running. He couldn't talk, people might be offended by that. That might lose some votes and you???re going, "You might lose some votes but you may save humanity, but it's up to you. Your call." I like breathing. I really like breathing and I don't like fecal matter in my water. It's just crazy. I don't like bathing in my own shit. For me it just bothers me, all of a sudden, 'What's that? He's got brown soap.' But the idea of that's acceptable. When they start talking about acceptable levels of strychnine, for those of you doing the math, it's a poison. It's not really acceptable over a long period of time and when you deal with mercury. 'It can really make your day go badly.' Thank you, people are going, 'Oh, don???t do that!'"
Of course, actually changing things doesn't win votes. "Look what we've elected. In Minnesota, you had Jesse Ventura, two terms. And he was elected just on the sheer fact, he won, he yelled at them totally like, "Screw all this new policy." I ask the people, did he ever pass anything interesting? No. Arnold is actually trying to make changes and yet still keep his base and yet still realize it's basically a democratic state but also a state where if you talk about environmental issues, it means something because we've actually experienced horrible air and bad water and fighting for resources and all that stuff. He's dealing with immigration issues and still trying to, 'We must be tough.' but still realize if you close the borders this place doesn???t work."
Then the election becomes personal, regardless of what someone could actually do for the country. "I have seen a lot of extraordinary people - Mario Cuomo-??? for whatever reason not want to go further. And why, given the fact that the scrutiny is way beyond what's necessary for the office. It's like you want blood and urine. It's like the old joke, 'He wants blood, urine and semen sample. Give him your shorts.' And not just you, but all of your past and it puts everyone around you in jeopardy. Family members, like if your wife has ever taken medication. Anything would be up for grabs. And why would it scare away anybody who might be extremely qualified, but if their life isn't squeaky clean you go, 'Well you can't be president.' If you apply the same standards moral standards to most of the presidents we've had, then they wouldn't be in office. 'Mr. Jefferson it is Sally on line two.' 'I told you I wouldn't wait in Paris. I've been waiting in Paris for two days Thomas Jefferson! You said I'd be first lady!' And then the grey haired man looks up."
Maybe a Tom Dobbs would be the answer. 'If you had a candidate who is up for full disclosure and actually doesn't care. The fact that he does have a history, the fact that he did inhale, the fact that he's done all these different things, that he's a human being. I'd rather have an intelligent human being who has all these different things going on and can deal with you. If you get a certain sense of this is who he is, this is what you get and screw all the other consequences. He hasn't been spun."
Yet, we still need the comedians to observe all this nonsense. "Like my character I believe I serve a better purpose just being able to make fun of everything. In many comics, the moment you chose a side even though people say, 'You're a democrat!' 'Yes, I've tried for awhile and what's left of the Democratic party.' This is not about one party or another. It's about how the whole system sucks. And right now you have special interests running a lot of politics. because it cost $200 million to run for most offices. For President definitely that much and even for Governor it gets in the hundreds of millions just to run the ads. The ads are usually like, 'He slept with a chicken.' 'Did the chicken die?' 'Itss not that bad?'"
Robin Williams puts all this in context when Man of the Year opens Friday.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Robin-Williams-3584.html
