Revolutionary Moderation

Random web wanderings by others



I was hit earlier today through a Google search: "Janeane blonde Garofalo crossfire" I followed the search back, followed the top link, and found this hateful little discussion.



I couldn't be bothered to critique the whole thing ("Celebrity pundits bad! Celebrity California Gubernatorial candidates good!"), but I do want to answer a question there that seemed honestly posted. To boil it down (full question here), why does the celebrity left have such a hate-on for GWB?



The answer is simple, and it's not left/right. George Bush Sr. didn't invade Iraq without provocation, he attacked Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. And he did it after getting most of the world's governments on his side. Not everyone cared for that war, and I certainly didn't, but at least it was justifiable and well-thought-out, two things that can't be said for Junior's war. Ronald Reagan might have been a deliberate cold warrior, but he never felt the way to defeat communism was to hold secret capital trials of foreign nationals in Guantonimo Bay. And neither of them ignored constitutional guarantees of security and privacy to investigate Americans' video rental and library use patterns. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that every President, Republican, Democrat, or Whig, has shown more respect for the Constitution of the United States than the current President. But I'm no historian... perhaps Grover Cleveland was worse than I think.



In the meantime, the media has rarely been so docile as it has lately proven to be. Janeane Garofalo has to speak up, because it is difficult or impossible to find the 2003 version of Edward R. Murrow. And frankly, the media environment we live in is more interested in Janeane, just as the media is more interested in Arnold than in Gubernatorial candidates we know by surname, or candidates who we only know by policies and political experience. If you want to find a well-thought-out non-celebrity criticism of GWB, I recommend Lewis Lapham, but there are plenty of others. Why isn't Lapham asked to appear on Crossfire? Because Crossfire isn't about politics, it's about verbal wrasslin'. It's entertainment, not civics, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.