How 'Major Kong' flew back into the political lexicon
When the usual adjectives won't do, a bomb-riding war monger is becoming a go-to image for what pundits see as absurd moments in politics.聽
When the usual adjectives won't do, a bomb-riding war monger is becoming a go-to image for what pundits see as absurd moments in politics.聽
鈥淢ajor Kong.鈥�聽A reference to the hydrogen bomb-riding warmonger in the classic black comedy 鈥淒r. Strangelove,鈥澛爄n politics it connotes someone who鈥檚 recklessly hurtling toward certain doom.
As politics become more divisive and 鈥� to many 鈥� more absurd than normal, the political class looks for pop-culture references that can illustrate that absurdity. Few are more vivid than Slim Pickens鈥檚 cowboy hat-waving character in 鈥淒r. Strangelove,鈥� the 1964 film satirizing the cold war. Pickens plays Maj. T.J. 鈥淜ing鈥� Kong, who near the movie鈥檚 end successfully rewires and then joyfully straddles a falling H-bomb like a bucking bronco bull before it detonates. It鈥檚 a character and scene that was given homage in 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� and inspired the name of a Polish doom-metal band.
In the Washington Post this week, liberal blogger Greg Sargent summarized the various presidential candidates鈥� positions on whether to close the federal government over funding for Planned Parenthood. He tweeted, 鈥淭ed 鈥楽hutdown鈥� Cruz has become the Major Kong character in Dr. Strangelove鈥� and linked to a post in which he said the iconoclastic Texas senator 鈥渋s sitting atop a missile labeled 鈥榞overnment shutdown鈥� and shrieking with hysterical, blood-curdling glee as it plummets towards Earth.鈥�
Chris Matthews of MSNBC鈥檚 鈥淗ardball鈥� also has compared Cruz to Kong; during the 2011 standoff between President Obama and congressional Republicans over raising the federal debt limit, he used the description for the entire GOP. But conservatives have invoked the image as well. Writing in U.S. News & World Report, Ripon College political scientist Lamont Colucci complained last month about the Obama administration mobilizing support for the Iran nuclear deal, including Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz鈥檚 contention that the agreement contains unprecedented ways of verifying that Iran doesn鈥檛 obtain a bomb.
鈥淎nd what real world does he live in?鈥� Colucci wrote. 鈥淭he world in which the only verification system is on-demand inspections or the world in which we replay the low-grade movie of the mid-1990s, where we knew the North Koreans were violating all the agreements, but could not get inspections on demand to verify it? This movie ends with the Kim family riding a nuclear missile down Tokyo鈥檚 tailpipe like Slim Pickens in 鈥楧r. Strangelove.鈥� 鈥欌��
Obama, inevitably, has been compared to Kong. And Vice President Joe Biden, in turn, has compared Obama鈥檚 critics to him. But invoking the character isn鈥檛 confined to American politics: In Canada鈥檚 National Post, columnist Chris Selley used it to describe former Quebec Premier Pauline Marois鈥� ardent support of a 鈥渃harter of values鈥� that critics called Islamophobic because it banned public-sector workers from wearing 鈥渃onspicuous鈥� religious symbols such as veils. Marois was defeated last year in an election that she herself had called.
鈥淭he polls told Pauline Marois that Quebecers supported her values charter, and she rode it to her demise like Major Kong in 鈥楧r. Strangelove,鈥� 鈥� Selley wrote.
Chuck McCutcheon writes his "Speaking Politics" blog exclusively for Politics Voices.