Twelve months ago, Maryscott went on Fox News, provoking a major controversy at Orange, among other places. I'm reposting my thoughts from that time not to re-open old wounds, but for the sake of historical context and pointing out that this latest controversy involving Markos and Orange is not unprecedented. Hope this is at least mildly instructive.
I've been casually monitoring the issues involved in this latest brouhaha over the appearance of our very own blogmother on Fox Radio.
I've found the ambivalence, apprehension, and even outrage the affair has sparked deeply disturbing. Far beyond the fact that it kills me a little inside when people mistreat Maryscott, the dynamics involved here speak to the nature and course of progressive change itself, and by extension, to the role of the political blogosphere therein.
Orange rose to prominence by championing Howard Dean, that much is certain, at least, in my world.
I found Orange about two days before the Iowa Caucuses, referred there to a friend who was trying to get me off the fence to support Dean over Kucinich.
Mind you, I had never blogged before and had no idea what to expect. So I got there and found a strong, smart and concerned community of progressives who blew me away with their convictions and especially their nuts-and-bolts, brass tacks knowledge of actual political process, something I, being more a dreamer than a fighter, lacked (and still do, for that matter, though I'm learning).
But the point is that the support I found for Dean at Orange made me a true believer. Why? Simple: community.
It wasn't that they convinced me by argument that Dean was worthwhile, that wasn't the point. They gave me a sense of solidarity and of conviction and of fight that frankly, I was astonished they all considered themselves Democrats.
They were like no Democrats I knew; they offered hope and vision instead of just fear, caution and cynical, status-quo condescension.
The fact that this quirky, potent community stood up for a genuine outsider impressed me. So much, in fact, that here I am, blogging away two years later, dying to do something.
All right, what has this to do with Mom?
Simple, they're now treating her as the party establishment treated Dean. Why is that, do you suppose?
Maryscott possesses all those qualilties that made Dean so compelling, so unsafe, and she's not afraid to use them. Honesty. Charisma. Earthiness. Vision. Passion. And yes, Rage, righteous and indignant.
Dean was untame long before that literal scream really got people's attention.
(Jesus, people are all so slavishly fucking literal.)
So when I heard that scream again yesterday (which they played to lead off that Fox show to discredit Dean for something or other), my thoughts turned to Orange and the winter of 2004.
I thought about how indignant Orange was when they used it to lay Dean low. I remembered how they defended him and embraced him and exposed his enemies both within the party and the media for the tools they were.
Well it seems, my friends, that the times have changed.
This same site, which rose to prominence precisely because it was willing to take risks and support the risktakers, now they don't want to know about risk.
Now they're all apprehensive about their very own Maryscott, who's not even running for public office!
"Oh, but what will people think if we let the crazy lady on the air?"
"It's one thing to rant around here, but on Fox? And to attack, heaven forfend, Democrats?"
"Whatever she does, I hope that she makes crystal clear that she's not speaking for the mighty and precious Orange--we have a reputation to uphold."
(For the record, not direct quotes, paraphrased composites.)
In times like these I recall the words of a great man, and a Democrat, no less, "A gaffe is when you tell the truth and people at Orange think you shouldn't have."
They really think Maryscott might gaffe away the left's rich reserves of credibility in the public opinion.
Ha ha hah a ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!
If only Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle were back, then we'd really start to win elections!
Ha ha ha ha hah a!!!!!!!!!
Funny, but profoundly sad.
And instructive.
Orange (for better or worse) is now a tamed beast.
Jesus, that was fast.
None of this is said to bash Orange, I'm not much of a day-to-day, reactive, in-the-trenches kind of guy.
The point here is that we might reflect on the history of Orange and the future of our Maryscotts and learn something.
Heh.
"I am Maryscott O'Connor."
How many more Maryscott O'Connor's are out there waiting to be reached?
And who, I ask you, is better-suited to reach these Maryscott O'Connors than, duh, Maryscott O'Connor?
Jesus, what's not to get about this?</div>