Street Roots • Nov. 10-16, 2017
Culture
Page 7
Known as the curmudgeonly “Lou Grant, ” actor E d
Asner has written a book challenging the right-wing
ownership o f our nation’s founding document
BY JOANNE ZUHL
E X E C U T IV E E D IT O R
amous for channeling his inner
grouch, actor Ed Asner reached a
tipping point last year in the build-up
to the 2016 election.
The multi-Emmy-winning actor was fed up
with the United States Constitution and its
authors being co-opted to endorse partisan
ideology and to deify candidates by
association. It was the misrepresentation -
and outright lies about the document,
history and the factual lives of the Founding
Fathers - that compelled him to dive into
what really happened nearly 230 years ago
when our country’s foundation was being
laid.
The result is “The Grouchy Historian: An
Old-Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution
Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs.”
As the title suggests, Asner doesn’t pull any
punches when it comes to tackling the
conservative tick of rewriting history.
And as Asner notes in his book, “nobody
thumps the Constitution like a right-wing
Republican.”
Asner rose to fame as Lou Grant on the
“Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and went on to
acclaimed performances in “Roots” and
“Rich Man, Poor Man.” A younger
generation knows him better as the voice of
Carl Fredrickson in the animated film “Up.”
In real life, he has been an outspoken
liberal voice against conservative authority.
He has stated that he believes his very
public criticism of President Ronald Reagan
F
on Central American policy led to him being
blacklisted, and his popular TV series, “Lou
Grant,” being cancelled.
Asner is currently starring in the one-man
comedy “A Man and his Prostate,”
performing Nov. 11 at the Elsinor Theater
in Salem. On Sunday Nov. 12, he’ll be
reading from “The Grouchy Historian” at
Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing.
Early in his book, Asner makes a point to
knock the Founding Fathers off their
historic pedestals, using their own quotes to
show their human side, their pettiness and
their vulnerabilities, he said, speaking by
phone from California. The goal was also to
take the sanctimonious sheen off the people
behind the document - that these are not
gods, with whom only the conservative right
can converse.
“I wanted to show that they’re human,
that the process isn’t perfect,” Asner said.
“That the outcome wasn’t perfect, that it
was being hammered at and is still being
hammered at.”
Asner, along with coauthor Ed.
Weinberger, did extensive research for the
book, and Asner said he came away equally
cynical and reverent of the document and its
authors.
Contrary to the Christian Right, the
Founding Fathers, he says in the book, were
Deists in their approach to governing,
“preferring reason to revelation; embracing
the morality of Christianity but not its
theology.”
Now, however, we’re “besieged” with the
argument that our country was founded on
A sn e r re fle c ts o n b o th t n e p a s t an d th e
Christianity, he said. “Even today, by the
religious right, we’re made to feel like we’re
flaunting freedom in the face of their
beliefs,” he said.
But there is no “God” in the Constitution.
There is no “God” in the Preamble.
Asner makes no claim that his book -
despite lengthy footnotes and a long
bibliography - is an “objective” study, or
tailored for historical experts. But it does
tackle many of the myths purported about
our history on right-wing media outlets
where the Constitution has become a
“weapon in the service of the self-
righteous.”
present, on issues such as slavery, religion,
the Second Amendment and the NRA, free
speech and Citizen’s United, and the
Supreme Court. But for all the gravity of the
topics, it’s a fun and heady read.
Asner concludes the book comparing the
self-righteous backslapping of today’s
politicians to the self-questioning posture of
the Founding Fathers: “Wise men who know
only too well what they did not know were
sharply aware that their Constitution was
less than perfect,” Asner writes. “They were
not so superior to believe that they had
solved and settled, once and for all, the
governing of a new nation.”
o
C E N T R A L C IT Y
C O FFE E
Sourcing & roasting craft coffee to
benefit programs at Central City Concern.
IN STORES
New Seasons Market, Whole Foods, Food Front
Cooperative Grocery, Green Zebra, Chuck's
Produce, Food Fight!, Cherry Sprout Produce, and
Know th y Food.
Power to Build
Equity, Protect
mmilnity, IncreaseSocial
e Environment and Heal.
«S '
AT YOUR OFFICE
Interested in serving Central City Coffee at your
office? Get in touch with us and we can help you
make that happen. 503.226.7387
ON OUR WEBSITE
Buy Central City Coffee online and have it
shipped directly to you or a friend.
beneficial state bank
BeneficialState.com
A BANK W HER fPEO PLE COME
RE PROFIT
AT KASBAH MOROCCAN CAFE
Get your espresso favorites at Old Town's
newest spot (201 NW Davis Street), featuring
Central City Coffee!
Follow our Facebook page for updates and specials.
centralcitycoffee.org facebook.com/CentraiCityCoffee coffee@ccconcem.org