Oh no. Award-winning deficit-hysteria evangelist Alan Simpson is trying to talk to the kids on the intarwebs. And so we have this.
The Can Kicks Back's (The "millienial arm" of the corporate-backed Fix the Debt campaign) video of Alan Simpson dancing to Gangnam Style and wagging his finger at young people about why we should care about the debt is funny...if you enjoy laughing at old men making fools of themselves. (I don't.)
Here Alan Simpson and his supposed "youth" army of deficit scolds make a perennial and classic mistake with reaching out to young people. They think that if they just appropriate the youtubes and all that rock n' roll music the kids are listening to today, that we will listen to them. They, along with the Republican party, believe it is an issue of style and not substance. Nothing could be further from the truth.
But let's talk style. Nobody likes a poseur. (When I was in Jr. high, that was literally the WORST thing you could be called) And that is what Gangnam Style is all about. It's not only a parody making fun of those silly, tuxedo-wearing, horse riding folks like those who live in the wealthy Gangnam district of Seoul, it is also making fun of people who are trying to be something they are not. As Psy, the song's artist said in an interview, "no one in Gangnam would say they are 'Gangnam style'".
So while Alan Simpson and the The Can Kicks Back makes fun of young people for tweeting pictures of their breakfast, (that's what EVERYONE does on the internet, Alan) the truth is they have no new or authentic ideas. Even their slogan "The debt is too damn high", is a ripoff from former New York State gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan and his The Rent is Too Damn High Party. Why did Jimmy McMillan and his party become an internet sensation? Because Jimmy and his message--the rent is too damn high in New York City and elsewhere, was authentic and TRUE.
But when you are peddling lies to millenials about a fantasy fiscal cliff that exists only in the minds of CEOs and pearl-clutching deficit scolds, authenticity is in short supply.
PS-Did anyone else notice that the "A" on the "Ameri-CAN" looks an awful lot like the logo of Rebuild the Dream?