Getting it Wrong on Michelle Wolf

A challenge, I'm learning, with this blog thing is the tension between seizing a moment and considering it. And on further reflection, reading, and the comments from people I respect and admire, I've changed my thinking about Michelle Wolf's performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner. 

Initially, I was reacting to a written transcript of her set, without seeing it in context. And I succumbed to my ever-prudish reaction to the word "pussy" in what I considered "polite company." Michelle used it five times. (But who was counting, besides me?) Add a plethora of crude and nasty jokes, at least as I interpreted them on the page, and I decided she was not funny (enough) and was guilty of making "our side" look bad.

Watching the routine on video last night, however, I was struck by the impishness of her tone and the gentle and self-effacing way she delivered her barbs. And seeing the cutaways to Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders made me feel much differently about what they were subjected to.

In the context of a "White House correspondents dinner," calling out Conway and Sanders for their relentless lying was right on target. These two lie to us and insult our intelligence and dignity as Americans every time they open their mouths and every day they remain in their jobs. They deserve to be called out for their utter lack of integrity and decency every time they encounter one of their victims, which is all of us. They are as culpable and as guilty of inflicting the current disaster on our society as Trump himself. More so, even, as they voluntarily stepped up to do it and are getting paid on our national dime. They are beneath contempt and unworthy of even the most anodyne of niceties.

And for me to join with "the base" in criticizing Wolf's language, even if motivated by a stubborn desire for decorum in our public spaces and for "our side" to be "better" than theirs, was misguided. The fact is, as many have pointed out, we can not and can't ever pull back and stop screaming at the top of our lungs that none of what's happening in our political life and at the White House is "normal." That it seems to be more normal every day, owing to its relentless flow, is just as dangerous as the substance of the sewage itself. If we stop condemning, ridiculing, or calling out its perpetrators and abetters, it will, inevitably, become normal and Trump will be re-elected in 2020.

Michelle Wolf had the guts to stand up there and give her targets exactly what they deserved. If it make them squirm, too damned bad. It's nothing compared to what's done to our individual and collective psyches every minute of every day; nothing compared to the vile and sickening tweets that re-infect us hourly; nothing compared to the sad fact that the WHCA itself failed to speak truth to the liars in their midst and who they enable on a daily basis. And I won't be a pussy about it.

Thanks to all who took the time and energy to comment, politely and persuasively. We need to buck each other up continually, to keep us agitated and committed to the cause of getting us through this nightmare and to stoking the fire-breathing resistance we need to get out of it.

And by the way: Rachel Maddow does take forever to get to her points, and Megyn Kelly is one scary creature.