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Anthony Bourdain: The Post-Election Interview

By Helen Rosner, www.eater.com
December 21st, 2016

Anthony Bourdain had just returned home for the holidays, stepping off a plane that had delivered him
from the balmy heat of Muscat and walking directly into one of those wintry New York snaps where the
frigid wind fires through Manhattans crosstown canyons like rubber bullets. I showed up at the restaurant
looking like a walking duvet, scarved and hatted and gloved. Bourdain was in a bomber jacket, hunter
green, ready for a mild autumn. He still had Oman on his mind. "It was pretty amazing," he said. "The
desert is a pretty once-in-a-lifetime experience."

It was December 19, the day the electoral college voted to install Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of
the United States. Bourdain and I had this dinner on the books for a month, ever since I reached out for a
quote, a diligent food journalist asking one of our worlds biggest stars if he had any thoughts he wanted to
share on the record about Trumps victory. A month before the election, Bourdain and I had a long
conversation on the Eater Upsell podcast. Then, among other things, hed defended his show, Parts
Unknown, from audience accusations that it had become too much about politics. "If the army controls the
entire flour supply and the bakeries, thats already a political thing," he said. Food is politics, is the point.
More to the point, media is politics, and that includes food media. "Im not gonna tell you who to vote for,
but I do notice things and I do have opinions," he said on the Upsell. "And if the guy I ate with in Russia
who says, No, Im not worried about Putin killing me is shot to death on the front lawn of the Kremlin a
few months later, I might mention that."

Im not telling the whole truth. Yes, I reached out to Bourdain because Im a journalist and journalists reach
out to people for comment, but I also got in touch for my own reasons. Spend any time in contemplation
of the astronomical map of food-world celebrities, and it becomes clear that Bourdain is not actually a star
he is a nebula. His fame is almost incomprehensibly vast, his brightness or sometimes, his darkness
defines the very shape of the expanse, hes so influential and creatively fecund as to regularly birth stars
of his own. His assertiveness is uncommon for someone of his stature, a candor thats both studied and
unaffected, that even as the topics to which he turns the knife of his attention have broadened in their
scope over the years, from brunch eggs and getting high to the crisis of unexploded ordnance in Laos
has barely softened its acerbic swagger.

At the moment Trump was elected President a man who had built his campaign on anti-immigrant,
anti-Muslim demagoguery and vindictively rhetorical sleight of hand the world flipped into slow
motion for the 53.9 percent of voters who cast ballots for anyone other than him. I got in touch with
Bourdain because I hoped hed be able to cut through that feeling of powerlessness. After I asked if he
wanted to talk, the reply came quickly: Hed love to, but not until late in December, once he got back from
Oman. And so, over a few hours and innumerable Asahis and countless yakitori skewers including
chicken hearts, inevitably metaphorical (and, as Bourdain pointed out, his daughters favorite) we did.

So, did you vote?

Yes. No fan of the Clintons am I, by a long shot. But Im a New Yorker, Donald Trump is a New Yorker.
And the New Yorkers I know, weve lived with this guy for 30 years. Ive seen Donald Trump say things
one day, and then I saw what he did the next. Ive seen up close how he does business. Just like if you lived

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in a small town, youd get to know the sheriff, the guy who runs the hardware store, the guy who runs the
filling station Trump comes from that era of guys you followed, guys you knew about every day:
Trump, Giuliani, Al Sharpton, Curtis Sliwa. Id see him at Studio 54, for fucks sake. Im not saying I know
the guy personally, not like Id hug him, but Im saying that as a New Yorker, we pretty much are
neighbors. And my many years of living in his orbit have not left me with a favorable impression, lets put
it that way. Theres so many reasons to find the guy troubling. When Scott Baios the only guy you can find
to show up at your convention, youre in trouble.

The big platform that kicked all this off for him, his comments about Mexican immigrants, intersects so
directly with your vocal championship of Mexican restaurant labor

He has a vineyard in, is it Virginia? I think a very interesting project would be to see whos picking his
grapes.

Thats a good question.

Well, I believe I know the answer, which is why Im asking the question.

Do you think hes actually going to make moves toward deporting people?

I think its going to be hard times. Is he gonna do anything near what he promised? Of course not. But he
will be forced to do something, by the people around him. He will have to do something, and it will be
extraordinarily ugly.

Does that change the urgency of the work that you do?

Ive spent a lot of time in Red State America. Ive spent a lot of time in Trump country. I have a lot of
sympathy, and I believe understanding, for cultures and for places where gun culture goes so deep that
first cold morning when Daddy takes a young boy out hunting with him, lets him use a rifle, shows him
how to use it I know how emotional and how deep that goes.

We are a violent nation, from the beginning. Im not arguing for current gun policy, but I think its worth
acknowledging that this is a country founded in violence, a country that has always worshipped outlaws,
loners, cowboys, and people who got the things they got by the gun. We glorify it, we created an
entertainment industry that does little but glorify solving complex problems with simple violence.

But I think to mock constantly, as so much of the left has done to demonize, to ridicule, to treat with
abject contempt people who live in a very different America than they live in is both ugly and
counterproductive. There are a lot of people who are pissed off, theyre tired of being talked to like that.
There are a lot of people in this world who, when an Applebees moves to their town, its a big deal and
I dont mean that in a dismissive way. Where somebody coming to take your guns away is a big concern.
Look, I dont think racism can ever be forgiven. Its a conversation-ender for me, for sure. But if you grew
up isolated, no interaction or little interaction, the only interaction youve had has been negative, and
youre fearful of the Other, and somehow everything you read in the paper makes it seem like theyre
getting all the breaks, especially when, in the news environment we live in now, its perfectly permissible
to lie.

With my shows, I seem to fall into power vacuums. I did at Food Network, I did at Travel Channel, I
always feel like I somehow slip through the cracks. I have really no zero, I dont feel that I have any

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responsibility. Im following my heart. If I find myself talking about immigration, or multiculturalism

though I hate that word at this point, its because thats how I feel. Its personal to me. Maybe at this
point its because I travel so much.

So if your generous, inclusive perspective on humanity is in part engendered by the depth and breadth of
your travels, and if your show winds up being the closest thing that many of us have to that kind of
global experience, then doesnt it follow that your show can serve as a point of entry for us to develop a
similar perspective?

Maybe. When I do live tours, I hear that, I see that. But all I know is how my shows make me feel. Making
them, experiencing them, going through the process of making them, and then watching them after theyre
done. Its either a successful story or a not-so-successful story. How they make other people feel? I think
Ive said before to you, its dangerous ground to start wondering about such things, and particularly now
that my outlook is pretty damn bleak.

I mean, you would think, Gee, with all these great travel shows on, there are plenty of opportunities to see how
other people live. But you know something else travel has taught me: People rise up and kill their neighbors
all the time. People theyve lived with their whole lives, yesterday they were fine, today theyre the enemy.
Youve seen it in Yugoslavia, youve seen it in Borneo. Now youre seeing it here. So, I dont know.

Im a guy whod like to blow up every safe space, every trigger warning. I would like to unleash every
comedian to say "cunt" as many times as they like, or any other word they care to use. But the threshold of
acceptable rhetoric right now, the threshold of hate and animus thats being shown at this point this
really naked hatred of every flavor, racists, sexists, pure misogyny, class hatred, hatred of the educated
this is something Ive never seen before. And its now acceptable! Its more acceptable in public at political
rallies than it is at universities, which is where people should be saying offensive shit.

So what will get us past this?

Changing demographics. Other than that, its Bond villain shit. Im pessimistic to the extreme. I really
think people have no idea how bad it already is, and how bad its going to get. I read a lot of history. Weve
heard all of this before. I think its that bad. It can easily go that way.

Do you expect anything will change with how you approach the show?

Already Ive been accused, apparently indirectly, by the Erdogan government, who are saying chefs are
actually working [as agents of foreign intelligence].

How does that make you feel?

Im heartbroken. I enjoy visiting Turkey. Its a place I have a lot of friends. Now I have to think about what
happens to friends who I visit in Turkey, would that compromise their position? I wouldnt go to Turkey
if anyone Id talk to would lose it or would be potentially under suspicion. They just purged tens of
thousands of teachers and government employees on much less grounds. So, you know, thats not helpful.

Russia clearly is going to be a problem for me. The last time I was there, they killed my lunch partner, you
know? And Im a little pissed about that. And Ive expressed that publicly, which is increasingly not such a
wise thing to do.

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Will you be complaining in public less?

No. I dont give a fuck. What have I got to lose? I wont be on TV anymore?

But if you cant go to Turkey, you cant go to Russia

Well I can, but I choose no. No, actually, I dont know if I can go to Turkey at this point, given who said
it, and what they said. Russia, I personally would feel uncomfortable there at this point. I have high hopes
of seeing Turkey again, and I hope very much I will. I would love to see St. Petersburg again. But Ive been
a number of times. Im old. There are still places to go.

As this far-right political wave is engulfing the world, do you think this list, the lineup of places where
the cost of you visiting is too high, is going to grow?

Probably. Which makes it hard. Ive been trying to get into Afghanistan for years. Kashmir has been
difficult, I want very badly to go there. Yemen that was high up on my list before everything went to hell
there. But there are bigger problems. Venezuela, its a huge problem to get insured to go to Venezuela. Ive
been there a number of times, but with a TV show? Its problematic.

As the number of conflict zones increase, as Im guessing they likely will, Im wary of looking to Uncle
Sam for an understanding face at the embassy especially given whos up for ambassadorships now. I can
call for help from whoever, but its nice to have someone who actually gives a shit. The last eight years
have been very very good. [Ambassadors] have been smart people, for the most part. People whove lived
in countries for a long time, even before they took the ambassadorships.

Have you thought about turning the camera inward on America even more, especially covering the people
the media are now saying were under-covered the white, red state, Trumps-America, "real America"
people?

I always do those shows. I like doing those shows very much. And I would try to do that in a loving way. I
like Mississippi, I like Arkansas, Missouri, Montana.

What do you think of that phrase, "real America"?

"Real" I hear that a lot, on my show. Any time I shoot in any city, someones going to say "How can you
come to Mexico City and show only this and this and this, you didnt show the real Mexico City." It can
mean a lot of things. "How come you didnt show the real Baltimore" can mean "How come you didnt
show white Baltimore?" Or it could mean "How come you didnt show my side of the city, the part of the
city that I know and Im proud of and I wanted the world to see? And instead you came and you made a
show about my town and it was a total disappointment to me, you concentrated on a tiny pocket, a corner
that interested you for some reason." It doesnt really mean anything, except to the people who say it, and
whether they realize what it means or not, its a genuine expression of emotion. I mean, what is the real
New York?

When youre putting your shows together, if its not some semblance of "real," what are you looking for?

Beautiful cinematography, thats really important. I want it to look beautiful. I want it to sound beautiful.
And Id like there to be a good story. And I want to feel a measure of happiness and satisfaction as Im
making the show, if possible.

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What happens if the truth isnt that beautiful?

Well, then well show that. Im really proud of the Madagascar show [which featured film director Darren
Aronofsky as a traveling companion], because we showed the Aronofsky version at the end. We had this
rather beautiful show made, with a nice, potentially heartwarming kind of conclusion, and instead I
decided we should let Darren look back and see what wed already visited, and exactly how ugly it was
and how unreliable the entire television process is. The cameras a liar. It only tells the story we want you
to see.

Isnt that exactly what people are mad at news media about? Im also very cynical about this sort of stuff,
but it seems clear to me that theres no such thing as unbiased media, because theres no such thing as
unbiased experience.

Look, I think Walter Cronkite, Edward Murrow those guys tried. The news was pretty dry, back then.
They were all products of the same schools and the same environments. Chances are they shared many of
the same experiences, too. These guys went through wars. But their backgrounds were similar. And in the
eyes of many, that made them unreliable, and thats not an unreasonable impulse. Our best and brightest
and most liberal gave us Vietnam, after that.

Even though you dont want to have responsibility, or even the illusion thereof, theres still a
responsibility that your audience imposes on you, whether or not you choose to accept it. Do you think
those expectations are changing?

I hope not. Im just going to keep doing what Im doing. Its about the story, whether you like it or not.

What happens if people stop liking the story?

Thats already the case. A lot of people are like, "Im never watching your show again, now that youve
moved to the Clinton News Network." As if theyll fall asleep for a few seconds at the end of my show, and
wake up and catch a few minutes of Wolf Blitzer, and it causes some homosexual urges and a desire to join
Al Qaeda.

I dont have an agenda, but I do have a point of view, and it might change from minute to minute. I like
going to places thinking one thing, and being proven wrong. A journalist has to have an agenda
who-what-why-where and I dont want to ask those questions. Thats a prison to me. Im not here to ask
you specific questions, Im here to ask general questions. Whats your life like? Tell me a story.

But if I can convince people to look around, and see whos actually doing a lot of the work in this country
picking vegetables, its all immigrant labor and then ask themselves, truly, whether they under any
circumstances would take that job? You know, to look in the eyes of the cook who makes their eggs-over
every day, and ask themselves whether theyd want to stand outside their house and be dragged away from
their kids? If I can convince a few people to go to a country like Oman, which has a completely
non-sectarian version of Islam, which is incredibly tolerant and super cool, or to Senegal, where theyre
Sufi, theyre just as devout as anyone in the Islamic world but people who just came from Dubuque, theyd
be comfortable there, theyd find beauty in it, theyd hear the call to prayer and think "Okay, there might be
something here other than what I thought"? That would please me. But its not my mission.

No?

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No. Im a fool, I will die a fool. Relatively proudly, I hope. Im trying not to do shit Im ashamed of.

So if not you, whos gonna do it?

I dont see the platform. How? No one watches one news station. They pick their own now, where
everything is rosy and wonderful or evil and conspiratorial, depending on how you feel. Twitter is
proving not helpful, Facebook has been, you know. The troll army has been really interesting. They come
up pretty dependably any time the Russia show airs. For a while, any seriously anti-Trump shit I posted, I
would get a group of them, a fairly organized troll army, and not just eggs. Thats a new wrinkle. And that
aint gonna go away. This is now a new, effective way to communicate.

So theres no way out?

Not at all. I honestly dont think so. Im sticking it out, Im not gonna run away to Canada. Im gonna pay
my fuckin taxes, Im gonna vote, Im gonna do all of that. But Im not going to be taking it to the streets any
time soon well, well see. I think were going to be feeling the effects of this for a long time. Im just not
optimistic. I worry about my daughter, of course

Your daughter is nine, which means shes coming of age probably right when the shit hits its peak.

Shes an Italian citizen. She has an exit strategy. She speaks Italian. She has an out, if she chooses.

But not everybody has an out.

Nope. I dont. Its too late for me. Im not going anywhere. Maybe for a while, here and there. But I just
dont see a lot of light. If I were a hardcore revolutionary, I would be applauding this Id be like, "Oh, the
pendulum will swing so far over, and itll bring the temple down, and then disaster, and then well have our
revolution!" But I dont believe that, and Im contemptuous of people who feel that way.

I think it was Lenin who said one of my favorite lines: "On the train of the revolution, we will lose the
liberals at the first turn." Its always worth remembering: In any revolution, whose heads are gonna be on
the pike first? Us. And shortly after that, the originators and founders of the revolution. Asia Argento said
it in the Rome episode: We create idols so we can destroy them.

So what do you make of Alessandro Borgognone bringing Sushi Nakazawa into the Trump DC hotel?

I will never eat in his restaurant. I have utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt. Just like
David Burke I mean, I never had the highest opinion of him in the first place, but I guess hes the last
person in this life I should look to for principles. Burke went in and took over [the space Jose Andres had
originally occupied], and promptly tried to poach his staff, I hear. This was after Jose reached out and said
"Everyone welcome him to Washington, dont hold it against him, just because I decided to pull out." So
Burkes a steaming loaf of shit, as far as Im concerned, and feel free to quote me.

Its not helpful, that sort of thing [opening in a contentious hotel]. Im not asking you to start putting up
barricades now, but when they come and ask you, "Are you with us?" You do have an option. You can say
"No thanks, guys. I dont look good in a brown shirt. Makes me look a little, I dont know, not great. Its
not slimming."

So what do you think was going through their heads when they were like, "Im gonna throw in with the

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bad guys"?

"Im gonna get in good with the President and make me some money!" What did Kanye West go to Trump
Tower for? Why did Al Gore go? Why did Mitt Romney go?

What would you do if he invited you?

Im not going. Im not going.

And I would never go to the White House Correspondents dinner though I doubt there will be another.
Thank god, thats an institution Id like to see die for years. If theres one good thing to come out of the
Trump administration, let it be that there will be no more White House Correspondents dinners. It
reinforces all the worlds worst notions about the hideous, inside-the-beltway, all-in-it-together culture. It
brings honor to no one to have Kim Kardashian or Tara Reid sitting there next to a news anchor. What is
this all about? Fuck that. If Im gonna make fun of you today, Im not accepting your food tomorrow. I had
dinner with President Obama, but I paid. We were offered Air Force One, and I said, "Theres no way. No
way."

That sounds a lot like journalism.

Yeah! Its like, "Be my friend, be my special friend." No, were not going to be your special friend.
Personally, I have a very low opinion of people who behave this way.

And Trump the man eats his steak well done! I dont think hes a good person. I remember the Central
Park Five, and what he said. Ive seen how hes treated employees. I saw what he did to Atlantic City. I saw
what he did to the west side of this town. Its fuckin ugly. Hes going to make the whole world look like
the back of Rick James van.

Do you think we just have to sit back and wait for him to do all that, before the people who support him
right now will realize its terrible?

Yes! Look, I came out of the 60s, and I remember very well all the demonstrations and the civil unrest
against the Vietnam war. The left likes to remember it one way. I remember that the result is that you get
Nixon twice! By landslides! And we got him even after Watergate. That was the mood of the "real
America" that you talk about. I dont know that streets filled with demonstrators and opposition is a real
argument.

Hunter Thompson said, America looks soft but under the flab its all fucking titanium steel underbelly, and
itll come rolling right over you, any time it wants. And look, there are people in this world who have
deliberately inspired exactly that kind of opposition, just to give them a reason to roll over it. So Im not
saying we should sit back docilely and silently while Trump dismantles our institutions, and our Supreme
Court, and the rights of individuals, as men, as women, as parents Im not saying that at all. But wed
better come up with some fresh fuckin ideas. And I would think that theyd better be grass roots, and they
should keep very much in mind all those people who voted for Trump. Many of whom surely, surely, are
decent people who love their kids, and go to sleep at night like all of us wanting good things for their kids,
a roof over their heads, some security, to live without fear, a measure of justice, some hope. Anything that
doesnt include that kind of an outreach, thats not going to help. Thatll be playing into their hands. I lived
through the 60s. There aint gonna be no revolution.

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It laid the groundwork for a revolution, though.

Yes, but it failed. Everybody likes to pretend that it succeeded, but it didnt. Are we any less racist now?
Okay, some of the laws have changed. Great. But are we any less racist as a nation? I dont know. Im
looking for some evidence right now and I dont see it. If anything, I see that theres a whole hell of a lot of
people out there super pissed off at this "atmosphere of political correctness" that has not allowed them to
say all the racist shit that they feel pressured into not being able to say. Apparently this was a very
powerful compulsion. It must have been torture for them all these years. And now they can say it.

Political correctness was never law, it was just etiquette.

You know, its why they always kill the comedians and the poets first. People cant stand ridicule. It clearly
gets under Trumps skin he cant bear it, its really a problem for him. So if youre looking to do
something, I think, you should ridicule him. Not his voters. His cabinet, for sure, and his appointees, but
not all at once. Stick with him. Successful agitprop I mean, look at Gerald Ford. He will always be
remembered as this bumbling Chevy Chase, a head injury waiting to happen.

Do you think ridicule is the right form of activism?

Theres right, and then theres effective. Now, to go all partigiano tactically and strategically, I think at this
point, its unsound, this idea that were gonna take to the hills. Its not going to work. Its going to be a long
wait. I think we need outreach, understanding, to look inside yourself and ask, how the fuck did we get here?
What did we do wrong? Who did we not convince? Who did we not make a meaningful argument to? And
how do we reach them? What is our common ground? How do we bring them over, to understand that
this man does not have their interests at heart? How do we make a reasonable argument? To not say that
theyre idiots or fools or yokels or any of that shit, but to say look, these guys are not here to help. Were
here to help. Or at least, were marginally more likely to.

Do you have a point in your day where youre on your third cup of coffee and youre like "Oh, thats
right, were on the path to fascism"?

No, Im not that panicky about it. I dont know why. Im clearly not that enthusiastic, or optimistic. But the
Nixon reelection was a formative moment for me. We already knew that he didnt have a secret plan to end
the war. Everyone was aware of Watergate. But it didnt matter. And the opposition, such as it was, had
either been successfully dismantled or devolved under its own dead weight and self-indulgence.

But nobody wants to hear some successful Hollywood actor or TV persons opinion on politics. I certainly
dont. Its enraging.

And yet, I think a lot of people do.

Theyre voting their own way anyway. People do what people do. People do good things and bad things.
They do what they think is in their immediate self-interest, and in the interest of their families and loved
ones.

This is the thing that shocks me. All of these guys [working with Trump], theyre like the cast of they
were the bad guys in Animal House, all grown up! Every frat movie, every meathead movie, Porkys,
Meatballs, the jocks versus the nerds, the jocks versus the hippies, any dystopian thriller, every film
Americas ever done. These are clearly the bad guys!

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"Rex Tillerson" is the most evil name. Its straight out of DC Comics.

I mean, "Reince Priebus"! And Rudy, I mean he looks like he comes out of Powerpuff Girls. Hes absolutely,
slaveringly demonic.

Do you think they know theyre evil?

Giuliani does. People have been telling him since the beginning of his career. But Im sure he knows.

You know, in the run-up to the market on Pier 57, we were talking to some very interested, very, very rich
parties and I mean really rich, multi-billionaires, running somewhere in the 10 or 20 percent range of all
commercial real estate in New York. Whats really amazing about them, I noticed, is they have really great
skin. These guys are in their 50s, maybe early 60s, and their skin is fantastic. Their pores are really clean.
Their grooming is impeccable. They must have their hair cut every two days. And theyve gotta be
exfoliated, or have a whole facial I mean, the nails! Just the maintenance of the corpus is extraordinary.
Its an evil all its own. Already, you dont like that guy. Does he have a manservant? He must. A barber, the
nails, the French cuffs.

Is it possible to become that wealthy without becoming evil?

What, behind every great fortune theres a great crime? I think behind every fortune theres a crime.
Behind every even reasonable amount of money, theres a crime. Im doing okay, and behind that theres a
crime. Many. If you make any money at all that you hang on to, you fucked somebody, somehow. You
disappointed somebody. Im not saying you betrayed a friend, you cut somebodys throat, you cheated
them out of their share of the deal. I havent done those things. But Ive hurt and disappointed people, on
my journey. Ive hurt and disappointed people.

Capitalism as a series of exploitations.

Well, communism hasnt worked out so great either. Its far worse, in my view. I know were like,
Democracy sucks! But its the best thing weve got going at the moment. Ive been to a lot of communist
countries, and where they take it seriously its a horror, and where its a joke, its a joke except for the
people who arbitrarily have to take it in the neck.

Do you think people will be watching your show in a different way now?

I have no idea. People watch my show for all sorts of reasons. I like it when I do speaking gigs up in
serious farm country, especially in the northern Midwest. People will buy VIP tickets, which are a lot of
fuckin money, and theyll stand on line. Itll be mom, dad, and their teenage son, and theyve driven two
hours, they live on a farm. You can smell the farm on them. And they always call me "Sir." "Thank you for
coming to wherever, Sir." Relentlessly polite, very dignified, very proud. Smelling of that farm. That
loneliness living, as theyve told me many times, miles from their neighbors. What do people take away
from my show? What they need. What they want.

My ideal viewer would be a guy who isnt involved at all in politics, whos not interested in my opinion,
who can freely reject me: "Oh that asshole, there he is with that shit again, lets see. Oh, but thats pretty,
thats interesting, that might be a place i might go some day, that cheese looks interesting, that looks good."

That seems like it could serve as a hook to get him to eventually stop disagreeing with what you have to

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say. He thinks the cheese looks good or the place is pretty and soon well, its a crack in the door.

In the Vietnam show, I asked my friend, who Ive known for many years, about why she stopped giving
tours at the American War Museum. It was a terrible thing to ask because I knew why she left, and I was
pretty sure she was going to cry on camera. She gave tours year after year after year, mostly to Americans
who would come to be confronted with the damage. I did this terrible thing because I wanted people to
see how I felt about her. I really never thought that I want you to feel this way too, but to believe that I feel
this way.

Film is so subjective. When I look off a boat, I want people to feel the way that I felt looking off that boat.
We try really hard to get people to feel the way I felt. But its basically a selfish enterprise. Im doing my
best to create a beautiful object that will work, and my aim is to make you feel the way I felt. It is not for
you to go running out the door, calling your congressman. I mean, it would be great if you do. But it
would make me feel a little weird.

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