On Politics: Ben Gibbard

Back in the late '90s, Death Cab for Cutie had the coolest name in the music game -- before …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead grabbed the title, that is. It was one you never thought you'd hear uttered on television or radio. But barely a year after the band's 2003 effort Transatlanticism stormed the airwaves, they were being name-dropped on The O.C., rotated on MTV and teamed with Pearl Jam for MoveOn.org's Vote For Change Tour. See, Ben digs politics, which is not to say that he's a wonk. He just wants some questions answered. Here's a couple. The rest are here and here. Read them all, but don't weep. Just vote.

Morphizm: Do you feel that the opinion that politics and art shouldn't mix is fallacious?
Ben Gibbard: I think art and politics are directly related to each other, and people that deny the cross-influence are kidding themselves. So I can understand why people tend to be annoyed by people like ourselves getting up and taking a political stand. But we've never really been a political band, and if people can't put up with it for two months -- out of our seven years working together as a group -- especially at this time in history, then I think they have some problems they need to work out.

Morphizm: How much is fear part of the Bush campaign. You know, saying that if Americans vote for Kerry, the terrorists win and all.
Ben Gibbard: Those tactics are being used now, and people are buying it. Which probably says more about human nature than anything else. But it's scary to be a thinking person in this country and realize that these tools of manipulation are still being used today.

Morphizm: Like the Swift Boat deal.
Ben Gibbard: It's really scary how much effect it's had. And what I don't understand is why no one is coming out and saying that at least Kerry fought in a war. I mean, as it is we don't take very good care of our veterans in this country. In fact, Bush recently cut funding for veterans' aid and other benefits for the military. Which is why it's insane that veterans would feel that it's far more important to discredit a person that actually served his country and support one that pussed his way out of Vietnam. We're actually entertaining this debate?

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Morphizm: If the media had spent half their time scrutinizing Bush's war service as they had Kerry's, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Ben Gibbard: Exactly! I'm amazed at the amount of coverage the right was able to generate on that, but it's probably because no one actually stood up and said, "At least I didn't hide out in Texas and purposefully avoid the war. At least I went."

Morphizm: Does the extensive coverage of this non-story say something about American media, how it really isn't fulfilling the public interest?
Ben Gibbard: I can counter that with a question about whether or not the media has ever been clean of bias. The media has never tried to show all sides fairly; that simply isn't in its nature. We're human beings, we're flawed and it happens that we just can't report on things objectively. It just doesn't happen.

04 October 04

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