In an effort to seem neutral, unbiased and comfortably afloat above the messy rubble of everyday life, you, our professional journalists and media commentators, often act as if the deceptions, deceits and hypocritical poses of the politicians you cover are content-less strategic or tactical moves in a game without consequences. You like to think it’s chess, but that really overstates the difficulties of politics. Politics is more like dodgeball played with rocks. There’s only a couple of possible moves at any given time. Duck or throw. It doesn’t take genius to succeed. In fact, smarts can get in the way. It’s better to possess a certain unthinking brutalism, a brutalism you ought to condemn. Instead, you are too often mesmerized by it.
It’s now clear that John McCain and Sarah Palin plan to run a deeply divisive, angry, racist, know-nothing campaign. They will provoke prejudice and burning resentment among voters. The tone of their just-completed convention was that of a red-eyed lynch mob impatient with the democratic rule of law. They want to deliver justice unto their enemies with their bare hands.
I don’t need to go on. Those of you in the press, those of you whose opinions are heard by Americans every day, you know in your hearts that this is the course the McCain campaign has chosen. And you know how dangerous it is for the future of our country. I beg you, please don’t disguise your coverage of this hateful return to thuggish politics with feigned neutrality and the misleading presumption that all tactics are legitimate, that Americans have the freedom to reject brutalizing, anti-democratic politics if they want to. The point of the brutalism is to intimidate and reduce the possibility of dissent. It is what bullies do. Like the idiot police who gassed lawyers, journalists and activists in the streets of St. Paul. Oh, you missed that, didn’t you?
Your always-above-it-all approach hides the truth and magnifies the dangers. If your conscience is unmoved, how about your vanity? Because it is a certain fact that if democracy survives and we still have honest historians in the future, history will look back at this era much like we look back upon the Civil War. You will be judged by history, and your descendants will be either proud or embarrassed by what you do. This is not a game. In fact, your only real responsibility is to recognize and report the implications of that fact.
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About Glenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
