A Special Comment about a Special Comment

I’m sitting here at my desk which is the peninsula counter in my kitchen, my tuchus half hanging off the stool that is 4 inches too tall for the place where I type. I’ve just finished watching yet another Keith Olbermann Special Screed, er, I mean, Comment. And I found myself crying a little bit. It’s uncontrolled. And I wonder where the tears are coming from.

See, I remember the hate, the vitriol, the despotism that was starting to foment around political parties. I remember that when I was in the 6th grade the social studies teacher asked us who we would vote for in the coming election and I and one other kid were the only ones who wanted Carter.
Carter won but something was growing in that little suburb of hate. The anti-semitism was building. The church had become active in corralling the young people to “retreats” and encouraging them to create a mystery around them by keeping the ongoings and doings a SECRET. It worked. It worked too well. Not only did I resent the church but I was jealous. And I hated myself for not being a part of the group. The clique.

The same organizing philosphy of empowerment through separation was going on in politics.

I didn’t think about it until later but I realized at some point that there were a lot of angry people.

Angry that Kennedy ever got into office.
Angry that the war was never “won”.
Angry that hippies existed.
Angry that their secluded spherical lifestyle was shattered and that they were expected to think on their own. They loved their cubicles, they loved their money, they clung to, well, not their guns, but their god. They also clung to hate. To “us v. them”. They were encouraged to participate and perpetuate this division.
And they pushed it onto their kids.

In other words, the republican right wing got a hold of the youth and brainwashed them into footsoldiers.

Some of us were outsiders and we saw what was happening but we were helpless to do anything. And we didn’t have a voice. Well, we did but it was in high-brow, self-congratulatory media like The NYT and The New Yorker.
We didn’t have what the right had: Populism.

One day, many years before, balance had a voice. It came in the form of reporters and journalists like David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace and Edward Murrow. I know the ones from tv because I am a child of that medium.
These were men (and women) that you could trust. They wouldn’t tell you who to vote for, they believed that what mattered was the truth and holding someone’s feet to the fire.
Then advertising got a toehold and the scales tipped in favor of noise.

It’s impossible to be heard through the din of opinion and 24 hour news. I think it was Jon Stewart (a Murrow of his day, history will bear) that said something to the effect that with so much time to fill on a 24 news channel the only thing one can do is comment on what one has just reported on.

And therein lay the groundwork for right wing polemic. They filled that void. They were raised on the Us v. Them and are used to that form of attack. The left has always been more thoughtful and reasoned and, well, Poindexter gets his ass kicked on the football grid, don’t he?

But the left grew up, too. It’s a half-generation later and they have not eschewed Poindexter as much as they have realized that in order to win we must change the game.

It’s not football, and it never was.

It’s baseball.

Politics is strategy and a game of inches. A basehit, correctly timed, can be followed by a walk. Then a sacrifice fly. And bloop single. And that one run is all you need to win the game. And you have to win more than anyone else over 162 of them. And even then you have a fresh slate to try to get the big prize and the next year it starts all over again.

But even baseball needs a commentator. A voice of reason. A cheerleader that is willing not to give a Sarah Palin the benefit of any doubt simply because she has been called to the field. We need someone, anyone, to say, “Hey! That was pure politicking, that choice. She doesn’t know anything! Am I taking crazy pills? This is THE SHOW, why is a double a ball player pitching!?!?!? Why won’t you guys admit that she’s just not ready??”

And that person arrived a few years ago in the form of Keith Olbermann.

Yes, he’s vitriolic and we are supposed to be above that (blech).

He is the nephew of a movement that is calling someone out when they lie.

I’ve been waiting for a voice like that and knowing that it is not only popular but giving rise to a form of reporting where the reporters don’t just let the spinners take control of the question but repeat theirs if it wasn’t answered in the first place fills me with such joy.

Made me very happy.

So happy I found myself actually crying.

So, I include tonight’s Special Comment about Sarah Palin because this NEEDS to be said and it NEEDS to be said on a national scale and I’m damned glad it is.

Take it over, Keith.