The Real World: Boston: I remember it well. Elka's controlling father. Montana distributing sips of alcohol to excited children. Genesis bawling after a kid claims to hate gay people, and Kameelah stepping in to educate. And most of all, I remember Sean Duffy, perhaps the only conservative cast member on The Real World who didn't seem like a Michael Moore-rendered caricature (though he admitted that Kameelah and castmate Syrus were the only two black people he really knew).
I was cool with him then -- and even after he married and produced a half-dozen children with Real World: San Francisco's passionate Republican Rachel Campos. But since Duffy became the District Attorney of Ashland, Wisc., the 39-year-old stands a real chance of filling Washington Rep. David Obey's seat in Congress -- since Duffy himself helped oust Obey. Weird. A solitary question remains: What does this mean for our innocent Real World nostalgia?
First, the scoop:
Sean Duffy, who spent 1997 finding out "what happens when people stop being polite, and start getting real," told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that his rising campaign for the seat played a part in Obey's retirement after 41 years in office.
"If I was to guess, I'd guess that was one of the considerations," he said.
The NRCC, a committee set up to get Republicans elected to Congress, sounded a bit more blunt in their assessment: "It was Sean Duffy and his grassroots-powered campaign that forced Dave Obey into retirement."
Well, I'll never underestimate the power of Real World conservatives again. If countrified Jon from RW: Los Angeles turns up as a political commentator, or if Jesus-touting Matt Smith from RW: New Orleans parlays his Lifeteen website into a happenin' Fox musical series called God is a DJ, then we'll know stereotyping is the best thing that can happen to you on a reality series -- or at least the most bankable.
Until then, let's catalog Duffy as an anomaly and continue to retain a vision of The Real World for what it was before the Trishelle years: a heated social mixer where racism and peanut butter ownership are both venues for us to practice our best "Hell no!"s in the privacy of our dens. (Sorry, just being real.)
Real World Star May Win House Seat [Popeater]