The concept behind America, You Sexy Bitch
The hope is that these two strangers can end their trip realizing each of them is a gun-toting Republican, each of them is a pro-gay rights Democrat, and freeze frame pumping their fists on the football field. Black even references the film toward the trip’s end, echoing Hall’s doomed question, “We’ll still be friends Monday, right?”
Spoiler Alert: the answer is…yes, apparently. If the answer were no, would they still have released the book?
At turns, Black and McCain are both engaging, off-putting, thoughtful, dogmatic, loose and catty. The book is told in a “He Said, She Said” format, alternating between each author’s point of view in every chapter. They frequently try to get on each other’s nerves: McCain relishes seeing Black get uncomfortable around guns or when someone they don’t expect to be turns out conservative. Black knows McCain is sensitive about the perception that she’s a spoiled senator’s daughter, and he throws it in her face.
Both revel in their respective stereotypes, and each have their respective blind spots. Black wears his linen pants and Crocs everywhere. A Bill Clinton acolyte, he dismisses the man’s lying and cheating mainly because he remembers peace and prosperity during Clinton’s presidency. McCain loves guns, country music and anything with an American flag on it. She offers Reagan as her president of choice, writing that Reagan never had an affair in office and was never impeached. Neither of them mention Clinton bombing Iraq or Reagan’s Iran-Contra affair.
Still, there is a palpable sense that Black and McCain are trying to get along, if only for themselves. And also for America. No, really. Each truly believes in the concept of “America,” and though their definitions vary wildly, they both agree it has something to do with inclusiveness. They don’t go so far as to preach acceptance, necessarily, usually remaining too philosophically split for that. At one point Black writes that, despite their best intentions, neither has managed to convince the other to change their mind about anything. Their combined plea is more along the lines of “Can’t we all just get along?”
And while politics looms over everything, there are apolitical moments. This is supposed to be entertaining affair, after all. So sometimes McCain, Black, Black’s assistant Stephie and the group’s driver, Cousin John, just get drunk together and have a good time. They try to put everything aside and see if they can get along as people, which is just as much the point they are exploring as any specific ideology. Sometimes it backfires and they wind up bickering, but usually they just drink and laugh.
The two surprise each other along the way, and the people they meet surprise them in turn. Black has always seen the Log Cabin Republicans as a small, ineffectual fringe group; when he meets them, he finds a group of dedicated, professional people and has the epiphany that America is mostly comprised of small, ineffectual fringe groups trying to change things. McCain finds herself rethinking America’s drug policies when her hippie researcher hosts in Washington discuss how useful ecstasy has been in treating post-traumatic stress disorder in battle veterans. Both believe in gay rights and global warming.
Ultimately and somewhat predictably, they wind up understanding each other better. Black comes to hate the way McCain is often portrayed in the press. Despite her bravado, he writes, no one is more likely to question her convictions than Meghan McCain herself. And McCain relishes seeing Black enjoy himself on a shooting range. The final irony (again, a Spoiler Alert here) comes when they finally reach Black’s home to cap off the trip. At home, Black is the conservative family man with a wife, two kids and (literally, as he points out) white picket fence. McCain is the one who questions the value of marriage and can’t see herself settling down. It’s a surprising reversal of stereotypes.
The book proves that people can get along if they put politics aside and treat each other as human beings. That’s an important message, but the nagging, unwritten postscript is “What happens next?” Yes, everyone is still friends on Monday, but the political problems remain. Getting along is a baby step that feels much bigger.
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