"the glossies, most of their subjects, and sometimes their writers and editors"

Neomi Emory has a great article on how the glossies, frivolous mags like Vanity Fair, New York, New Yorker, and the "style" sections of the big papers, turned virulently, almost insanely anti-Bush last year (I had assumed that Valerie Plame was on the cover of Vanity Fair as a lark. Wrong.). And, more importantly, why?

...WHAT MAKES ALL THIS more than mildly funny is the fact that glitzkrieg--political war as carried on by the glossies--has become in a sense the core of the Democrats, their chief source of lucre, and most prominent face. "Look at Kerry's chief supporters and you see a new kind of elite," says Joel Kotkin, "a veritable 'hip-ocracy' of high-tech tycoons, Hollywood moguls and celebrities, and a bevy of Wall Street financiers." This describes the table of contents in most of the glossies, most of their subjects, and sometimes their writers and editors, one of whom pulled down a cool $100,000 for pitching a movie idea. An Axis of Edginess, they make up the Miramax wing of the party (named after the Hollywood studio that branched into publishing, and whose head is an ardent and tireless Democratic fundraiser). Last year, John Kerry cleared almost $50 million in Hollywood, and was seldom without a phalanx of film stars, who dominated his convention in Boston and stumped with him throughout the campaign.

"The most talked-about party at the Democratic convention was the one thrown by the Creative Coalition, featuring the kind of people one normally reads about at the supermarket," wrote the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger. "The most talked-about Democratic fundraiser before the convention was at Radio City Music Hall, featuring Whoopi Goldberg. . . . The most talked-about Democratic fundraising event after the convention is the Vote for Change Tour. . . . The world of celebrity and the world of the Democratic party are now joined at the hip." To this the glitzies bring all their good judgment, their sense of proportion, and their understanding of the common man.

The Democrats who used to produce things--cars, steel, and foodstuffs--are being replaced by those who produce fads and fashion....

"An Axis of Edginess." I like that...

(Thanks to Betsy N)