Ave Atque Vale John McLaughlin

Summertime is always the busy season here at the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company (dont ask me about my business) and so it's often difficult to find time for regular blasts from these digital pages.  Yet this week's passing of noted political commentator John McLaughlin requires a few words. 

We all have our own unique interests in life and often we can point to the genesis or the inspiration(s) for those passions.  While undoubtedly my Dad's lifelong interest in baseball was a foundational cornerstone in my own attraction to Our National Pastime, as was growing up next door to the equally baseball-mad Paleorider, unquestionably it was as a direct - and primary - influence of my older brother Lou and his interest in baseball which ignited the baseball flame in my heart.  Such is the ubiquitous development of a younger brother, under the sway of a trailblazing older brother.  For further reference on this subject, see; The Who, Rush et al.  I was lucky that Lou's influence was benevolent (and cool!).

I grew up in an era of but a few broadcast TV channels - the three big networks, a few local Public Broadcasting Service channels, one or two independent broadcasters.  Perhaps 10 television channels in all.  In the evening, my folks tuned in the local news which then (as now) was followed by the national news from one of the Big Three national networks.  As a child I watched passively these broadcasts with my family but how much the evening news may have influenced me is hard to determine.  Like most kids, probably very little as I did not comprehend much/most of it until I was older.

Some summer afternoon in the early 1980s, certainly prior to Reagan's re-election in 1984, when surfing the handful of channels on our television's rotary dial I stumbled across a PBS current affairs/political commentary program called The McLaughlin Group and - borrowing from poet Robert Frost - that has made all the difference in my adolescent and adult interest in all matters political/governmental.  I was drawn to the intelligent, energetic exchange of ideas by the guest panelists.  I soon began to identify with the cold, hard logic of Cold War-era conservatism of columnist Patrick J Buchanan and his pro-capitalism, strong national defense arguments.  In later years the positions of Pat Buchanan have, in some respects, evolved apart from my own yet it is the mid-1980s political opinions of Pat Buchanan which formed the bedrock upon which my own political doctrines are established.  Were it not for The McLaughlin Group, I would not have developed the particular brand of Vast Right-Wing Conspiracism I espouse today.

The McLaughlin Group instantly became a regular part of my television viewing habits.  I always found John McLaughlin to be a fair moderator, even when allowing his own biases to be known, giving equal time to right-thinking patriots like Pat Buchanan and Fred Barnes and Tony Blankley, misguided liberals such as Morton Kondracke and Mort Zuckerman and (Middletown, Ohio's own) Clarence Page and radical left-wing anti-American extremists like Jack Germond, Eleanor Clift and Michael Kinsley.

The cultural and political impact of the program can be observed through it's 34 years of longevity but also via the numerous, hilarious parodies - in particular Saturday Night Live's spoofs (and the classic SNL derivative The Sinatra Group skit which Lou and I oft quote to this day).

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is a statistical impossibility and 10 is a metaphysical certitude, John McLaughlin and his program was a 10.

Prediction:  My guess is that there may be a tribute episode of The McLaughlin Group to be broadcast this weekend on your local PBS station.  Check your local listings.

Hail and farewell, John! 

Roll the credits!