Audio By Carbonatix
Since November 4, even the most cynical lefties have been spotted chanting “USA, USA” — un-ironically! — and discussing the American Dream with the kind of gush they would have formerly dismissed as naive platitude. Has a new essence of optimism dawned with the election of what’s-his-’bama, or did liberals need a sudden injection of hope to see the America that’s been here all along?
The problem, according to author Harmon Leon, is the conception of the American Dream as a single-sided effort to emulate the monolith of white conservatism, a viewpoint he skewered relentlessly in his 2005 satire, Republican Like Me. As the nightmare of the Bush years comes to a close, Leon believes it’s time to take a new look at the land of the free. He continued going undercover to immerse himself in various subcultures in the hopes of answering one not-so-simple question: “Does the American Dream truly exist?”
He expanded his targets to include the entire political spectrum, from a day spent with the “God Hates Fags” believers in Kansas’s Westboro Baptist Church to a week working as a carnie in Kentucky to some toke-filled time at a Northern California pot farm.
Surprisingly, it was among the hippies where he felt his personal safety was most at risk.
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“There’s tens of thousands of dollars in marijuana up there,” he says. “Seeing the people minding the place, you realize that anyone could rob the whole place with a pen knife.”
Leon will read and sign The American Dream tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl Street in Boulder. For information, call 303-447-2074 or go to www.boulderbookstore.com.
Mon., Dec. 1, 7:30 p.m., 2008
