The Man in the Hat | article | California Screaming

    Late last year, I had the pleasure to record a documentary interview with former Senator and 1972 Democratic Presidential Nominee, George McGovern. He was getting quite a bit of press following his open editorial letter in the New York Times and his cover article, "The Case for Liberalism" in the December 2002 edition of Harper's. The setting was a quaint house in bucolic farmland under the Big Sky of Montana.

   The senator was pleading his case that the Bush administration reconsider its path towards war in Iraq. Although it might have seemed that his view was in the minority, sales of that month's Harper's would attest otherwise. As the interview progressed, he recalled his days in the United States Senate. He "reached across the aisle" to a GOP counterpart, Bob Dole to draft and pass a bill that became the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) Program. Perhaps it is merely nostalgia, but it seems that the government and the nation as a whole behaved in a more civilized way then.

   This fall a majority of California voters decided to recall Gray Davis from the office of governor. A plurality have dubbed Arnold Schwarzenegger [sp?] to replace him. This comes on the heals of the closest Presidential Election in recent memory. One that was decided not by the electorate, but by the US Supreme Court. The White House may have acted aloof about this special election in the Golden State, but Mr. Bush was clearly gloating over his party's state house gain at a recent GOP fundraiser.

    Ever since Newt Gingrinch became the Speaker of the House following the 1994 mid-term election, there has been less "reaching across the aisle" and more shouting over it. It is tempting for partisans to point to the other party for the recent failure of compromise. There is another seemingly silent, yet ever present actor on the stage: the media, specifically television.

    Some time ago Congress, in an attempt to open itself to the people in an expanding cable universe, created C-SPAN. This was to be a nonpartisan window for the electorate on the workings of Capitol Hill.

    However, the speeches became more pointed. Something akin to the "shock-jock" patter of morning drive time radio moved the orators to preach to their camps on extreme sides of divisive issues.

   The pattern continued as only recently discredited, arch-conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh became the number one voice on the public's airwaves. In a climate where Mr. Limbaugh is so beloved, General Electric owns NBC, CNBC and MSNBC; where the Fox News Channel initiated the Florida recount; where television stations merge within the same market so that more news outlets are in the hands of fewer corporate heads, there is still a knee-jerk reaction against "The Liberal Media."

   I believe that my interview with the former Senator from South Dakota was properly set. He was a voice in the wilderness. He spoke with a quietness that comes from clarity away from the heavy loud machinery that has sadly become politics-as-usual in our time.