The great Judi Dench was nominated for an Academy Award yesterday. Although this is not an entertainment blog, we cats are using Dame Judi's most recent Oscar nod as the news peg on which to hang our amazing discovery that — when we were kittens — we knew the child at the heart of the film "Philomena."
This is kind of embarrassing, because the book on which the film is based has apparently been out since 2009. But it's taken this long — not to mention the production of a Hollywood movie — to make us realize the connection. We can only say that we've been busy, blogging about the election of America's first African-American President and all the political events that have occurred since.
But Martin Sixsmith's story has hit hard with us, and mostly in a good way. It has cleared up some mysteries we've lived with over the course of our nine lives. And without giving away too many plot points (we hope), it's made us reflect anew on the stunning decline of the Republican Party in the last 35 years.
Oh, sure, they've won Presidential elections. (Or "won," as the case may be.) But year after year, bit by bit, the GOP has painted itself into an impossible electoral corner — clinging to narrow, intolerant policies and positions, even as the country has moved beyond them. Pretty soon, the only people left in the Republican Party will be old, white, straight, male Southerners — business owners, and working men who have been convinced to vote against their own economic interests.
Without (again, we hope) giving too much away, our accent is on the word "straight." We wish we could ask Philomena's son how he feels about his political party today. Since we don't expect him to tell us, perhaps somebody like Ken Mehlman would chime in. Ken Mehlman — who has been strangely silent, not just about this, but about so much else. For that, and for all Republican hypocrisy, we cats HISS.
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