Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust
-- Ever since this campaign downshifted into high gear, I've been wishing
it was like some sort of Time Traveler's Checkerboard. If we could plug
some dynamics of this year into 2000, or 2004, imagine how much less
glum we'd all be now, as Americans, and how much less grim our
circumstances would be.
I've watched as Hillary Clinton has fought like a tiger throughout the
primary season. She and her staffers have at times been ruthless and
heavy-handed. Prominent reporters and commentators have been smacked
upside the head for perceived transgressions. MSNBC's David Shuster was
yanked off the air for a couple of weeks for daring to say something
unseemly in reference to Chelsea Clinton. His on-air colleague, Chris
Matthews, was deluged with "how DARE you's" from viewers who perceived
him as sexist in general and anti-Hillary in particular. Randi Rhodes
was pulled from Air America for daring to say unflattering things about
Hillary and supporter Geraldine Ferraro during an off-the-air stand-up
comedy routine.
I thought that kind of thing only happened to media people who didn't fall in line and stay in line about George W. Bush.
It makes me wonder what might have happened, back in 2000, if the
ferociousness of the Hillary movement had been in play against Junior,
instead of the gentile adult Al Gore. He took the high road, and a
rather thoughtful, professorial one at that, rather than fighting tooth
and nail, and throwing a few sucker punches. Hillary wouldn't have been
so kind. She's proven she's willing to mud-wrestle. What if we'd had
some of that back then?
And in 2004, would she have allowed herself to be swiftboated the way
John Kerry did? Would she have let that stand without an instant
smack-back -- and probably a fairly nasty one? Would she have decided
"not to dignify those charges with a response," and let the toxins seep
all the way in before she had a change of heart? I seriously doubt it.
Let's go back farther. What if the Clinton Offense Juggernaut that
we've seen throttle the likes of Shuster, Matthews, and Rhodes for
perceived transgressions had gone after Lucianne Goldberg, Ken Starr,
Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and the rest of the Clinton-hating
Lewinsky-obsessed? What if there had been a cyclone of outrage roaring
back at them, outshouting them, sucking the oxygen out of their rooms,
putting their jobs in jeopardy, and returning insinuation for
insinuation? What if there'd been a campaign of aggressive, relentless
counter-strikes, imposing consequences, (more than Newt's resignation
from the Speakership), and changing the subject so they were suddenly
playing defense?
I've often wished I could lift the blood-thirsty,
hit-'em-below-the-belt Clinton machine from this year and drop it in
one of those earlier years. We needed her style of guts and gumption
then, back when too many Democrats and liberals were muted, or cowed,
or joined the pile-on against Bill Clinton. Anyone anywhere could say
ratty things about him, and her, and even Chelsea -- with impunity. You
had to scrounge for the Lanny Davises and a rag-tag band of lesser
lights to find anybody willing to stick up for them in public against
the pack of talking-head jackals.
What if there had, indeed, been consequences for that? What if there'd
been a backlash, a push-back, by the Clintons, where there was a price
to be paid for striking at them, rather than a bonus to be enjoyed if
you ate them for lunch?
What if? How about eight years NOT lost -- in the pursuit of an economy
that benefits those at the bottom as well as those at the top, or an
energy policy that doesn't involve overseas bloodshed and bleeding
wallets at every visit to the gas pump, or perhaps a head start on
heading off the momentum of global warming, or a government that was
still based on the Constitution, separation of powers, separation of
church and state, and the moral high ground rather than the perversion
of all four? Some of the madness we've seen overtaking this country
since the Republicans gained the low ground might have been
circumvented if we'd had Hillary-style hardball played against them
more often.
She's said she'll work her heart out for The Democratic Nominee. I
hope so, because we need that, especially if Barack Obama becomes the
Good Cop at the top. We still need her, and the Bad Cop role is one she
obviously relishes.
But, MAN! What we might have accomplished, and what nightmares might
have been avoided, if she'd been firing on all cylinders like this --
during a few campaigns past...
***
Mary Lyon
is a veteran broadcaster and five-time Golden Mike Award winner, who
has anchored, reported, and written for the Associated Press Radio
Network, NBC Radio "The Source," and many Los Angeles-area stations
including KRTH-FM/AM, KLOS-FM, KFWB-AM, and KTLA-TV, and occasional
media analyst for ABC Radio News. She began her career as a liberal
activist with the Student Coalition for Humphrey/Muskie in 1968, and
helped spearhead a regional campaign, The Power 18," to win the right
to vote for 18-year-olds. She remains an advocate for liberal causes,
responsibility and accountability in media, environmental education and
support of the arts for children, and green living. In addition to
World News Trust, Mary writes for Huffington Post, OpEdNews, Democrats.us, WeDemocrats.org's "We! The People" webzine. Mary is also a parenting
expert, having written and llustrated the book "The Frazzled Working
Woman's Practical Guide to Motherhood.