On the retroptimism of the RNC. Bring back retro-futurism, we need a nice old-fashioned future.

Lovely Simon Reynolds piece on the hauntological ghost world of the Republican Party that is now completely divorced from reality, running on the fumes of it's own nostalgia.

Just take a look at the two major players.

Mitt Romney, born 1947, 21 in 1968. Formative music should have been Jefferson Airplane, Hendrix, Grateful Dead. Was probably Monkees. But grew up as one of the kids in Mad Men. His 10 year old self will remember his mother's certainties as stuck in 50s America. So inherent retromania is hardly surprising. 

It's Paul Ryan that is truly confusing. Born 1970, his mum should have had big hair and shoulder pads in 1980. But perhaps he was actually conceived at Woodstock. Formative influence at 21 might have been grunge. If he'd been in the UK he might have caught the energy flash. First sexual experience was probably watching Ron Jeremy.

The difference in ages does make you think Mitt might be the father Paul never had? So we get 50s certainties, grabbed and internalised by a 10 year old, re-inforced in the negative reaction to flower power, and then becoming a father figure.

Finally these two messed up psyches want to be the stern parental figures for the whole world, wagging their fingers and telling us to sit on the naughty step.

So did the Democratic party absolutely nail it (as Reynolds apparently thinks) with this video that turns them into a 50s Black and White newsreel? Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Would Take Us Back—We Can't Afford That