The Politics of Humanity and the Death of Tony Snow
Tony Snow died today. He experienced a long battle with cancer, and still managed to sling the conservative propaganda with the best of them. While it’s impossible to praise his enabling of the Bush administration’s agenda, I will note his humanity - and compassion - when it mattered.
More often than not, during his 17 month tenure as White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow pissed me off. When the conservative anchor-haired mouthpiece from Fox News was selected to head the Bush propaganda team, most of us on the liberal side of politics rolled our eyes. It was perfect. Fox News now had one of their own on the inside (not like they didn’t before, anyway).
But in some ways, Snow was the perfect foil for the Bush administration. He could argue a circular, losing point with the best of the BushCo apologists. And smile while doing it. And make you believe that he believed what he was saying (even when he was called out on slinging bullshit). In other words, he was the propaganda minister that George Bush had been missing. Ari Fleisher was just a glib little prick. Scott McClellan was a dufus in the role. But Tony Snow fit like a glove, and believe it or not, I think that Snow sort of defined the phrase, “compassionate conservative”.
Why would I posit such a non-progressive viewpoint? On the occasion of Tony Snow’s passing, I’m reprinting a short piece (just after the jump) that I wrote last year after Elizabeth Edwards announced that her own cancer had returned…
Yesterday, I marked my 53rd year on the planet. During my time in this mortal coil, I’ve observed that the art of politics has devolved from at least a pretense of statesmanship, to little more than a game of one-upmanship. Who scores the most points with the voters and the press? Can perceptions be managed in the least damaging way possible? What about whipping the base into a foaming lather (whether the “base” we’re talking about is Democratic or Republican)?
One of the most disturbing aspects of modern day politics is the personalization of attacks and loss of humanity by the practitioners in the game. Whether it’s Rush Limbaugh mocking Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s convulsions, or other GOP mouthpieces cynically suggesting that John Edwards is using his wife’s illness as a ploy to capture headlines, it’s enough to make a person say, “Enough!”.
There are few of us who haven’t been touched in some manner by the ravages of cancer. The cynical suggestion that anyone would use the disease to further their own personal agendas is nothing less than abhorrent. But that’s how people like Rush work - the end game of partisan personal attacks, and influencing a decreasingly compliant base of dittoheads, justifies the means.
I am no fan of the Bush regime’s Minister of Truth, Tony Snow, but he displayed a bit of grace after the Edwards’ announcement on Thursday. As a cancer survivor, he knows the deal. Indeed, he’s heading back into surgery on Monday to have an abdominal growth removed, and will be out of action for a few weeks. Perhaps that’s why he can empathize:
Asked about his message to cancer survivors, Snow said: “The biggest problem you have sometimes with cancer is flat-out fear. When you see Elizabeth Edwards saying, ‘I’m going to embrace life and I’m going to move forward,’ that is a wonderful thing.”
I particularly like Joe Gandelman’s take at The Moderate Voice:
But, Rush, on this Sunday perhaps it’s worth remembering:
The mili-second after each of us leaves this earthly scene, we’ll no longer be Republicans or Democrats or independents. Just souls.
And it’s unlikely God will say: “Ditto.”
Indeed.
So what? Points for behaving like a caring human being for once? When it hits home and they can actually GRASP what it is to suffer, then they’re all about the compassion and empathy.
Otherwise, he was a mouthpiece and obfuscator for policy that destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Sorry, it doesn’t balance out.
Shane, I’m not implying that it does balance out. It doesn’t. I’m simply recalling a moment in highly partisan politics that transcends the differences between us, as gaping as that difference might be.
For many years I listened to Tony Snow on hate radio twist context for a special political ends.
Here, Shane is exactly right, the balance is not there, and it’s unfortunate that Tony Snow ruined far too much of America supporting the Bush’s doctrine. As Tim Russert, Chris Mathews, O’reilly, Limbaugh, Levin, Hannity, Dobbs, actually the whole line up in CNN, MSNBC, and Fox first line journalist brought America to where we are at now.
What America will begin to understand is that, these, first Line Journalist are not the best people in our current culture. Those who choose to work at America in IMUS type contractor agreements for six figures a safe pension and family security are compelled to deliver any thing their management wants not what America needs.