The Jester’s New Stage

I would sooner see the Late Show cancelled after David Letterman’s retirement than see Stephen Colbert take his place.

Yes, I’m adding my name to the chorus of conservatives and GOP guard screaming about what a bad decision this is — albeit for an entirely different reason.
Actually, scratch that. It’s the same reason. It’s about Colbert’s steady, unflinching, unapologetic attacks on the gaping maw of ultra conservatism. The Rush O’Reillys of the world hate him for his surgically precise dismemberment of their outspoken, outlandish outrage. That he might take such a sideshow out of the Comedy Central pup tent into the center ring of the big tent on a major network at a coveted timeslot is too much for him. They hate that he’s coming.

I hate that he’s leaving.

It’s unlikely that Colbert will be playing Colbert in this venue. The brilliant satire that loudmouthbreathers like Michelle Malkin STILL don’t get — NINE years into this act — isn’t on the menu for the Late Show.

No, we’ll get to see Stephen Colbert, the man. Not Stephen Colbert, The Host Of The Colbert Report. And while that is likely a refreshing change for the man, it’s a far bigger win for the idiot GOP complainers than they’ve begun to realize.

Who’s going to fill his void?

In the last decade, two voices have risen above the steady, constant drone of poorly researched, partisan pabulum the major news networks have foisted upon us. Two voices have managed to find meaning in the swirling vortex of polarized pandering. Two voices have held the rest of the yammering talking heads, the blowhard, bullshit-slinging bureaucrats, Capitol Hill-bullies and corporate monsters accountable for their actions.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The father and his one, true son. The court jesters are the only people left we can trust.

If Stephen Colbert leaves his post, there’s no one left to man it. And the loss of his particular brand of watchguard is more than we as a free populace should have to bear.

There was a time when we trusted our journalists to keep us informed as a populace. It was the job of the Fourth Estate to be the check-and-balance to all of it. It was what We The People expected would keep us safe from King George and the rest of his court — filled with those whose only priority was to grow their individual powerbases. But then, something happened we didn’t see coming.
The stock market came along and bought the government. And, as it turns out, that included the Fourth Estate.

Now, truth itself is more fluid a concept than it ever has been. Where you lineup on a particular issue is so sacrosanct that discourse is hopeless. Twitter-sized sound bites are little more than landmines of distraction and disinformation at best. We can’t believe our own damned eyes anymore.

The court jesters are the only people left we can trust.

They’re the ones who’ve been willing to hold up the mirror to all of it. And without them, the crooks, the criminals, the white-collared, jack-booted thugs all get their way.

So, no, I don’t want Colbert to ever stop what he’s doing now. Write your letters. Maybe campaign for Tina Fey to take the Late Show, because she’d be great. But keep Colbert …Colbert.