Watching us becoming like them/Ed Schultz “Il Duce” edition: In the past two days, the New York Times has published some fascinating letters about the death of Osama bin Laden.
Yesterday, we were struck by the letters urging Americans to maintain their basic values. (For all Tuesday letters, click this.)
“It pains me to see our idea of justice perverted into an expectation of reciprocal murder,” a man from Virginia wrote. In a similar vein, a man from Maryland criticized “the unseemly chest thumping” over bin Laden’s death. (“Even more significantly,” he opined, current policies of the U.S. and its western allies “will continue to generate the hatred and resentment that give rise to terrorism.”)
An associate professor from Seton Hall criticized “the celebrations of the death of Osama bin Laden,” noting “the feverish chants and flag waving.” He continued: “With the deepest sympathy for our innocent dead, isn't it time to begin to recognize that there are also innocent dead abroad?...Unexamined enthusiasm, it seems, blinds all people similarly.”
Whatever one may think of these views, we thought this theme was most plainly expressed in a letter from an Illinois woman. For the most part, she restricted herself to comparisons from our own nation’s history. In our view, she asked a good question:
LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES (5/3/11): Press photos of Americans drunk with glee over the killing of Osama bin Laden recall images from long ago of parents hoisting children onto their shoulders for a clearer view of a public execution. This mindless merriment, based on hatred, fear and foolish indifference to the rage it inspires outside the United States, echoes the mindless viciousness of terrorists.If we become them, what ''way of life'' will we have left to protect?
We had similar reactions to the some of the celebrations staged by college students. One night later, we had the misfortune to watch Ed Schultz in a near-fascistic display on his “progressive” cable program.
Schultz is supposed to be on “our” side, but he started his Monday night program like this. No, we aren’t making this up:
SCHULTZ (5/2/11): Good evening, Americans. And welcome to the Ed Show, tonight from New York City, a city where thousands of Americans were killed on September 11, 2001.And tonight, the mastermind of that attack, Osama bin Laden, is rotting at the bottom of the Arabian Sea. Got to ask you: How’s that for change you can believe in?This is the Ed Show. Let’s get to work!
Your DAILY HOWLER keeps getting results! After February 9, Schultz dropped the opening format in which he would excitedly say, “These stories are hitting my hot buttons at this hour.” He now implores us to “get to work” each evening.
On Monday night, Schultz got to work with a near-fascistic display. He gloried in the death of bin Laden (and his son) while urging his impressionable viewers to worship their commander in chief. As we watched his long, loud, bumptious, reptilian display, we thought of Jack Oakie’s performance in Chapin’s famous film, The Great Dictator (1940). More specifically, we thought of Oakie’s bumptious portrait of Benzino Napaloni, “dictator of Bacteria.”
Oakie’s portrait of Mussolini was (and is) funny, cutting, insightful. But on Monday night, that wasn’t an actor crafting a portrait of the deeply bumptious Il Duce. Instead, that was the host of a “progressive” TV “news” program—and the great man was soon saying this:
SCHULTZ: Great to have you with us tonight, folks.This is the story that the globe is paying attention to. There is no question about it. It’s the story that we are all fired up about. I’m fired up about this guy right here: The president of the United States.You know, I wish I had five hours to talk to you tonight and have fun with this, because we’re going to talk about American exceptionalism tonight.
As Il Duce creamed in his pants about the greatness of his Dear Leader, he said we’d have lots of fun that night talking about rotting corpses and our Italian—sorry, our American exceptionalism. And don’t worry—things quickly got worse! As he continued, Schultz began helping us see that the troops love their Dear Leader too.
Soon, that claim would become explicit. But Il Duce started like this:
SCHULTZ (continuing directly): And before we start with the president, we’ve got to thank those Navy SEALs and those military guys that give it all, their all, all the time for the United States of America.Tonight, we’re going to show you some interesting footage about how they love this country, how we responded to all of this, and of course we just can’t forget what they have said about our president.This president right here, President Barack Obama. If we can just for a moment talk about the guts this guy has shown over the last 48 hours, talk about how he has undoubtedly proven that he could take the 3 AM call, that he may not have served in the military, but he certainly sure makes a lot of good calls, doesn’t he? And about how this country, despite all of the division that we have politically, we are now beginning to unite a little bit. This may be a big turning-point for this country. I hope so.But President Obama did it with dignity, didn’t he? Wasn’t any jingoism going on, no cowboy kind of talk, a lot of dignity shown, a lot of class, a lot of—I guess he kind of did it kind of like the academic way.
Schultz praised Obama’s lack of jingoism as he spewed his own all over the screen. He prayed that we might be entering a time of political unity. Soon, though, he took us to the Naval Academy—but not before asking us which major party loves the troops more:
SCHULTZ: You know, but then there’s the troops. You know how we hear so much about the troops and how they just have got to have our support? And we do give them the support—absolutely.But then there’s this talk about Republican and Democrat and who supports the troops more? I was captivated by this video. This is at the Naval Academy. This is the commandant with those wonderful Americans. Let`s take a look at this.
Schultz played video of young midshipmen being led in a cheer by their “commandant.” (Their chant: “I believe that we have won! I believe that we have won! I believe that we have won! I believe that we have won!”) As Schultz felt his manhood rising, he helped us see what this chant so plainly meant.
And no, once again, we’re not making this up. Il Duce actually said this:
SCHULTZ: “I believe that we have won!” How about that spirit? That spirit! Do you think those folks at the Naval Academy, the way they were feeling last night— Do you feel that they love the president of the United States?
You can forget all about Jack Oakie now. By now, this had gone beyond any pattern derived from Mussolini. Schultz was now recommending love for Dear Leader in a way that’s most reminiscent of life in North Korea.
This is not a criticism of those midshipmen. This is not a criticism of the Navy SEALS who risked their lives last weekend, performing their mission quite capably. This is not a criticism of the man who led those midshipmen in that slightly odd chant. This is a criticism of Ed Schultz, who gave as fascistic a performance as we’ve ever seen on our TV machine. And trust us: Il Duce was just getting started! As he continued, he lavished extensive praise on Dear Leader’s many infallible recent judgments. In these judgments, Dear Leader astounded his military commanders, not unlike Jesus in the temple.
Then, he returned to this:
SCHULTZ: Some other details: Well, bin Laden’s son—he was taken out on the stairs between the second and third floor. The commando who took out Osama bin Laden recognized him on the third floor on sight and shot him twice just over the left eye.See as Americans, we got to have proof. We love the detail of operations like this, don’t we?
Il Duce gave details of the way the bin Ladens were “taken out,” even explaining which eye got shot out.
He then informed us that, as Americans, we love such ghoulish details.
Schultz is a very strange person. This long, near-fascistic paean ran almost eighteen minutes. You can watch the whole thing, minus the short opening taunt about “change you can believe in:” To do so, just click this.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss another part of Il Duce’s rant—his abiding love for “American exceptionalism.” But for today, let’s leave things here, adding only this:
Schultz has near-fascistic instincts. He flashed these instincts on March 29, in a pair of long, bizarre segments about the incursion into Libya. On that program, he kept insisting that his guests should call the Libyan opposition “freedom fighters;” he complained bitterly at the idea that they could be described as “rebels.” And he complained that Republicans who criticize Obama’s approach to this matter simply aren’t being “patriotic.” This fascistic strutting went on for 22 minutes. Finally, Laura Flanders had the pluck and the simple good sense to say this to her host:
“I’m in the camp of those who think it is patriotic to criticize the president.”
For twenty-two minutes before that statement, Il Duce had strutted all about, offering a truly bizarre display.
We commented on that display at the time. At Salon, Justin Elliott cited this strange performance in an otherwise underwhelming report about Schultz’s unfortunate history as a right-wing radio crackpot (click here). But on Monday, Schultz gave full head to his near-fascistic instincts. We thought of his disgraceful strutting when we read those letters in the New York Times the next day.
Ed Schultz resembles a big jar of nuts. This is what happens when corporate suits select your “progressives” for you.
Tomorrow: A pair of progressive good Germans
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