A Convincing True Detective Theory Goes All the Way to the Top
What the Clintons, chickens, and Cajun caviar have to do with True Detective.
The show has already made a few connections between Kindt and Clinton. For one, Clinton very famously appeared on The Phil Donahue Show in 1992 and self-righteously clutched his pearls when host Phil Donahue dared question the stability of the Clinton marriage. The would-be president got thunderous applause. Kindt also makes a Donahue appearance.
You don’t need to be an expert in all things Clinton or Arkansas to know that the politician and the state enjoyed an especially messy entanglement between politics and big business in the 80s and 90s. (Whitewater, anyone?) Tyson Foods C.E.O. Don Tyson had a very cozy relationship with the Clintons. A 1992 Washington Post report opened with this evocative lede: “Don Tyson kills 25 million chickens a week on his assembly lines, 10 times as many birds as there are people in Arkansas.” Further down the page: “It would be an overstatement to say that Clinton and Tyson could not have succeeded without each other—for the most part their relationship has been of mutual benefit, helping Tyson expand his operations and Clinton ascend politically.” In 1994, The New York Times further investigated the connection:
“[Clinton] was young and he was impressive,” Tyson recalls. “I don’t believe we ever talked about his politics; hell, he was a Democrat.” Tyson put a modest sum of money on Clinton in his yearling race, a congressional run in 1974. Although Clinton lost that election, he showed excellent form, and Tyson backed him again in his successful 1976 run for state attorney general; and again in 1978, when the 32-year-old ran as the overwhelming favorite for governor.
Tyson’s support came with what appears to have been a lot of leniency and kickbacks from the Clinton administration and even messier entanglements including, what else, an investment scandal for Hillary Clinton.
Did Lucy sleep with Kindt? Is he the real father? Does that embolden him to act on behalf of the Hoyt family? Oh, maybe. If we’re making real-life comparisons already, then we might as well mention “Troopergate” and Bill Clinton’s particular sexual appetites when he held high office in Arkansas. In Episode 4, Amelia overhears Lucy wrapping up a call: “Don’t call,” Lucy says. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to, motherfucker? Huh? Hello? Hello?” She then tells Amelia that theirs was “not a happy home” (no duh) and that all she could hope for was that her kids would have a better life than she did. But that she messed that up.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/02/true-detective-hoyt-daughter-gerald-kindt-bill-clinton-lucy-purcell-harris-james