We are coming to the end of the first 100 days of the King Chaos reign, and therefore the previously announced end of the Rachel Maddow Show's return to five nights a week on MSNBC. For these unfathomable weeks, we have looked to Rachel for news coverage, but we have also found in her a principal voice of the Resistance.
By reporting not only the Chaotic actions but daily emphasizing the resistance among the population out in the country, she has in effect become a beacon of hope for an anxious public and a de facto leader--perhaps the most influential and certainly the most visible.
In his first media appearance immediately after his epic 26 hour speech addressing the wholesale destruction wrought by King Chaos and his minions, on the Rachel Maddow Show, Senator Corey Booker acknowledged the inspiration she provided him and others with her relentless coverage of those relentless demonstrations.
What appears to be her conscious choice to accentuate the positive is one chief element in this de facto leadership. She has shaped the resistance with how she reports it, and her narrative theme of how sometimes "pushback works," and without resistance, nothing will slow this catastrophic attack on the American government and national security, the world economy, America's alliances and standing in the world, American values and American democracy.
Another element is her choice to report what others are not reporting or emphasizing, in ways that only she can. Her authentic presence, on-air chops and the historical depth she brings to each story illuminates and therefore inspires.
There is simply no one else like her or her show. And we need her there--five nights a week, or anyway more than once a week, as was the announced plan.
There is apparently a lot changing at MSNBC, and it may not be her preferred platform anymore. On the other hand, it's hard to see MSNBC surviving without her. Her ratings are carrying the network, and challenging the top numbers elsewhere in cable newsdom.
I doubt I'm the first to say it nor is it likely I will be the last, but I add my small voice: we need you, Rachel. Stay with it. Stay with us.
