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Having engaged in a fair amount of heated rhetoric myself over the years, I’ve become convinced that it’s pointless, senseless, and ultimately just plain wrong. Yes, there are certainly plenty of ignorant, brain-dead, self-absorbed zealots dragging their knuckles through the public sphere. Sometimes, the amount of partisan lunacy emanating from the Right (et tu, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)??) can be enough to make my head feel as if it’s about to ‘splode. It’s frustrating and it’s maddening and it’s the worst sort of intellectual dishonesty imaginable…but there’s one thing I’ve managed to learn over my years of writing about politics. No matter what I do, no matter how angry I become, and no matter how much bile I spew in the general direction of the loons and the idiots…nothing changes.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with pretty much everything Ed Schultz said in his 15-minute rant. Sen. Marco Rubio is a liar, a hypocrite, and the worst sort of zealous ideologue that the Tea Party has to “offer” America. Rubio lacks integrity, compassion, and, worst of all, any recognition of where he and his forebears came from. He’d have us believe that helping people is somehow hurting them. I detest just about everything Rubio stands for, but while his partisan demagoguery is indicative of the worst that America has to offer, my opinion is just that- my opinion. By launching into a lengthy rant, by engaging in insults, Schultz demonstrates (badly) that he’s capable of stooping to the level of so many on the Far Right, who, when they lack a cohesive argument, simply resorting to insulting Liberals.
We’re better than this…aren’t we?
Look, I’ve tossed my share of vitriol over the years. It took me awhile to learn this, but it changes nothing. My rage in the end only impacts me, and not in a positive way…and I don’t have the public platform Ed Schultz has. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with righteous anger when it’s channeled properly, and Schultz made some excellent points. The problems start when you stoop to making an argument personal. Sure, I may think Marco Rubio’s an idiot, but I’m not sure what’s accomplished by going off on a 15-minute rant just to make that case. Screaming won’t accomplish what you think it will…unless, I suppose you’re preaching to a choir who lives for that sort of thing (Jerry Springer meets an MSNBC talk show?).
All Schultz has really accomplished with his rant is to confirm the Right-wing stereotype of Liberals as unreasonable, irrational zealots who think Big Government is the answer to everything. Reasonable people know, of course, that this stereotype is as inaccurate as it is silly, but when an argument exits the realm of reason and rationality for the domain of rage and vitriol, people generally stop listening.
Here’s the other thing…do we REALLY need to resort to the tactics that people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum, regularly engage in? How is the cause of Liberals and Progressives served by making an argument personal? We’re better than this, and we should expect better from people like Ed Schultz. There’s nothing wrong with passion and righteous anger when properly channeled. When it devolves into 15-minutes of rage and personal insults…well, that’s one reason why the state of public discourse is what it is today. No, we can’t control what the zealots, screamers, and haters on the Far Right do, but we should be able to expect better from our voices on the Left. Ed Schultz should be admired for his passion and the courage and strength of his convictions. I think that most of the time he speaks the truth about what the Far Right is doing to this country. Unfortunately, he too often goes off the rails and allows his passion to degrade into angry self-righteousness, which does nothing to advance his- and our- cause.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
