Title: Interview 3: 'Talking Points' with Kelly Nyks
Course: US Election 2012 - Leuphana Copy > Section: The Candidates

Interview 3, 'Talking Points' with Kelly Nyks

TALKING POINTS – INTERVIEW KELLY NYKS

1. WHY DID YOU MAKE THE FILM?

Because there is such a conspicuous absence of across-the-aisle political dialogue – the notion of civil discourse (the supposed life’s blood of our democracy) has all but disappeared from the public square. The film was an attempt to go beyond the partisan rhetoric so often heard from politicians and pundits, and get out on the road to talk to citizens from coast to coast about what they think and feel - about the issues, about our political system, about the country as whole.

2. WHAT WAS YOUR STRATEGY FOR REMAINING NON-PARTISAN IN SUCH PARTISAN TIMES?

Really simple - everyone I interviewed got the same six questions. The short order cook in Flagstaff, AZ and the cattle auctioneer in Amarillo, TX got the same six questions as Tucker Carlson, Jesse Jackson, Norm Ornstein and Noam Chomsky. I was asked a lot ‘This isn’t another Michael Moore film, is it?’ In many ways this film is a polite rebuke to that type of partisan documentary filmmaking - we had no pre-conceived political agenda that we were going out to find evidence to support.

3. HOW DIVIDED ACTUALLY ARE WE?

We are divided and, in a certain senses, have always been so – that’s the nature of a two-party system. The difference, however, is the acute and almost exclusive attention devoted to our differences in contemporary campaigning. Whereas in the past campaigns battled to sway the voters in the middle, these days it’s about exciting the base – we have gone from the politics of persuasion to the politics of mobilization. And to successfully mobilize your base you focus on the issues they hold dearest, and these are often the most divisive ones. So we get battles over abortion and gay marriage because they work so well to excite both sides of the political aisle.

4. WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SURPRISE ON YOUR TRIP FROM COAST TO COAST?

That - despite the heightened partisanship - people were still willing to talk politics. Even though we fulfilled nearly all the stereotypes of indie filmmakers – a young and motley crew from New York and LA, slightly unwashed, and almost certainly liberal – people responded to our invitation to talk about politics with enthusiasm and, most importantly, sincerity. That being said, I was threatened with a gun by a minister in Texas before we began the interview - he was kidding in think - but that interview ended up being of the most insightful and thought-provoking conversations of the entire trip.

5. DO YOU THINK WE CAN ACTUALLY MOVE BEYOND PARTISANSHIP?

There is no doubt in my mind that we can. Like any affliction, partisanship is an equal opportunity civic ill – it affects us all… Except the politicians - because partisanship wins campaigns, gets people in office and sustains careers. So, change isn’t going to come from the top down, it will have to be from the bottom up – from people like you and me. We will only move beyond it as a nation when we demand that we move beyond it as a nation.