“Fuck you, Karl” / Stop Kavanaugh

Americans must unite to block Kavanaugh from The Supreme Court

conor patrick
Sep 4, 2018 · 9 min read

The first half of the title of this piece also happens to be the three words from my favorite tweet of 2017:

The National, being awesome

A bit of back story is in order. As with all my good back stories, this one begins at my favorite venue in Los Angeles: The Troubadour.

The Troubadour, Los Angeles 10.16.15

In October of 2015 I was blessed with the opportunity to see The National play a charity show at The Troubadour. During that show they unveiled a track which (with a few adjustments here and there) would later make its way onto the band’s seventh album, Sleep Well Beast. Back in 2015 Matt was referring to the track as “Roman Candle”, but fans of The National now know it as “Walk It Back.” In the middle of the recorded track, Lisa Hannigan cuts in to recite a quote from an unnamed senior advisor of George W. Bush (many attribute it to Karl Rove…) from a New York Times article written by Ron Suskind in 2004. The quote is as follows:

People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you are studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out.

We’re history’s actors and you — all of you — will be left to just study what we do.

The above quote is an anchor I have clung to over the past few months. It speaks symphonies to my soul. At the end of 2016, I wrote a piece remarking on how reality seemed to be bursting at the seams; in 2017, I was buoyed by the fact that I wasn’t the only individual who saw what was happening — my favorite band did too. And not only was The National seeing things in a similar way as me, they even inserted this quote into a track that I was able to see performed publicly for the very first time.

It felt a lil’ like kismet upon my first listen of Sleep Well Beast.

In a cheeky Newsweek article (linked to in The National’s tweet), reporter Zach Schonfeld reached out to Karl Rove to get his thoughts on both The National’s “Walk It Back” and the quote within. Karl predictably poo-pooed the track (‘Suspect it won’t make Casey Kasem’s Top 40') and continued to deny any attribution to the quote. Thus, my favorite tweet of 2017 (again):


I wake up every morning and the first thing I ponder is death.

It’s been happening ever since he won the election.

And, because of that, I made it my sole goal of 2017 to come to terms with the fact that you can’t halt death. There is an arrow in death’s quiver with your name on it just waiting to strike —

— and then I was in a car accident.

It was a little over a year ago. I didn’t tell too many people how severe. I have been in multiple car accidents over the years, but never any this grave. Details of the ordeal have subtly entered into conversation since then, but I try not to let on how terrifying it was. My car was rear-ended at a red light (my vehicle was stationary) by someone going 35–45 miles per hour. My airbags did not deploy, so I smashed my temple into the steering wheel and suffered a mild concussion. Thank goodness I was wearing my seatbelt and, luckily, no one else was in the vehicle with me — especially the backseat, which was completely demolished.

But there’s something about living through a collision that you had no idea was coming. In previous accidents that I had been a part of, there was always that knee-jerk, last second understanding of — ‘Oh! I’m about to be in a car crash!’ — but, alas, not so here. The one silver lining that came from this clusterfuck? I used the accident as an opportunity to begin using public transportation full-time.

It’s altered my way of existence, my well of empathy, my view of reality.

The Gold Line, Los Angeles May 2018

Growing up and going to Catholic schools in Columbus, OH (and then going to college in Athens, OH) did not prepare me for how diverse this great country of ours is. Moving to Los Angeles was a culture shock. I spent my first year in Burbank at an apartment complex which housed a number of Latinx families. There were a lot more of them than us— we were a foursome of the whitest Ohioans and one Kentuckian you ever done met. Something I was ashamed of at the time and only now feel comfortable admitting? When I first moved to this area, I dreaded walking around alone after dusk. This was partly because new cities can be frightening, partly because the nighttime can be as well. But in hindsight, these reasons paled in comparison to my single biggest fear: The Other.

I can’t erase my terrible, ignorant mindset from the past — but I can evolve. My inaugural year in Los Angeles was the first time I could personally fathom how reality appears through the eyes of a minority. Until you are authentically ensconced in a mass of different people, cultures and customs you’ve rarely (if ever) interacted with before, it can be hard to truly put yourself in their hypothetical shoes — because it’s something you can never actually achieve. What I have only recently begun to realize, however, is that The Other I was weary of during this time wasn’t simply those with different colored skin, of different national origins or of different faiths; while growing up in Ohio, I was shielded from witnessing socioeconomic disparity and its consequences — and therefore perplexed by my ‘newfound’ privilege and (more so) guilt.

And driving around Los Angeles in my lil’ bubble of a car created a shield too.

Los Angeles 2012ish

Which is why experiencing Los Angeles from a public commuter’s perspective the past year has been eye-opening. I’ve always fancied myself a talented observer and wandering around little-trekked areas of Los Angeles to find new bus stops or subway entrances has certainly adjusted my perspective about our present reality. Because while our country’s current situation still seems dire to me — a queer, cis white lad— these fears about our collective future must be (and must have been) amplified to the Nth degree for women, non-Christians, and any individual of color just trying to survive for the past two years (and, in most cases, even further back.)

So as I’ve been sitting on these subways, light-rails, and buses all throughout the great city of Los Angeles, seeing firsthand how our survival as a species relies upon us learning to (not just coexist, but) flourish alongside those different than us, I keep coming back to this pesky single phrase… this thought that won’t stop gnawing at me … perhaps actually ‘spoken’ by someone who brazenly pushed us further into conflict in the Middle East with zero justification

We’re history’s actors and you — all of you — will be left to just study what we do.

And I think to myself: maybe it’s time we become history’s actors for a change.


The Unite The Right rally, Charlottesville, VA 08.12.17

A few weekends ago saw the one year anniversary of the death of Heather Heyer and injuries of 19 separate victims at the hands of a white supremacist in Charlottesville, VA. Said white supremacist is set to begin trial in November, facing 29 federal hate crime charges as well as assault and murder charges, although the defense believes that they can protect said white supremacist from criminal liability via a mental illness argument (for the record, the defendant drove over 300 miles — from my home state of Ohio — to attend the Unite The Right rally, where he purposefully plowed his car into a crowded street. Whatever the outcome, know this: it was a murderous act of hate.)

At the time of Heather Heyer’s unfortunate passing, I was certain that we had finally hit the majority of Americans’ ‘Wake Up Call’ moment. No such thing occurred. But the death of Heather Heyer is a no-brainer: there should have been a much larger response to those bullshit “both sides” remarks by the current administration. The fact that the majority of our country didn’t recognize the cosmic shift in American identity that occurred on that fateful day of August 12th, 2017?

That still haunts me.

I’m buoyed, however, by the strength of Heather’s mother during these trying times. Susan Bro has been concise and clear about the difficulties that lie ahead for America and, also, how she views her responsibility moving forward. Included below is a bit of a New York Times article that warmed my heart (as much as something like this can, considering the circumstances.)

Melissa Gomez, The New York Times 07.05.18

“The wheels of justice turn slowly,” (Susan Bro) said, “but they do turn.”

And right now? We need to make sure these wheels of justice continue turning — slowly as they may — in a constitutionally sound direction.

Which brings us to a final bullet point; the end of this tangled web of musings: Brett Kavanaugh, a man about to attain an immense power which would allow him the opportunity to actually shape America’s reality for the foreseeable future, must be stopped.

Seeing as the current White House Admin (perhaps DOJ?) is keeping 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaugh’s records secret, it’s safe to say there’s some skeletons in this man’s closet. Not to mention the president (who nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the highest judicial position in the country) is entering a constitutional crisis of immense proportions. No administration facing the onslaught of criminal charges coming their way deserves the ability to nominate (let alone confirm!) a lifetime appointment as robust as a Supreme Court Justice.

If we want to do right by Heather Heyer, if we want to do right by Heather’s mother Susan Bro, if we want the word ‘justice’ to carry one one-hundredth of the weight that word should carry in America… we must come together, put our differences aside and stop Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Here’s how to get started fighting back.

And head here for the ACLU’s excellent breakdown of Kavanaugh’s thoughts on National Security, Abortion, Immigrant rights, Judicial power, Senators’ duty, Net Neutrality and more.

This administration is not an empire. Yet.

Let’s remind them of that before it’s too late.


PS — A fun additional bit of info (from Newsweek again) behind The National using Ron Suskind’s quote from The New York Times in “Walk It Back”:

Suskind…likes The National’s music. (His son introduced him.) When the band reached out about using the quote, he had no objections and directed them to his agent. He will likely receive a cut of the publishing revenue. Suskind says that he will donate any proceeds from the song to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

PPS — Matt’s also offered Karl Rove royalties on “Walk It Back” if he comes out and cops to the quote. Look at Berninger, dangling that carrot like a pro!

PPPS — If you haven’t yet, set aside the (uninterrupted!) hour necessary to indulge in The National’s most recent album Sleep Well Beast. Seriously, put your phone on Airplane Mode and give yourself over to its melancholic bliss. It is my favorite album of 2017 and — whether or not you end up in agreement with me on this point— I guarantee that you’ll discover its artistic merits are well worth a dedicated hour of your life.

PPPPS — While The National’s Matt Berninger has been co-writing songs with his wife Carin Besser for years, this album is their first as a legitimate song-writing duo. The two are credited as the co-writers of Sleep Well Beast’s ‘lyrics and melodies.’ 50/50. And I think that’s cool as hell — y’know, equality! 💙

conor patrick

Written by

💙 • writer • queer • cute?

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade