A HUGE loss : RIP
His ongoing struggle with an ailing heart is now past, as that extraordinary blogger, Steve Gilliard, has died.
He was only 41.
You will find many who will note this with sadness, as do I. They’ll speak of his powerful words, his unrelenting moral insistence. All who’ve read him will know that’s true.
I remember him as one of the originals at DKos, as an extraordinarily intelligent man with a surprising array of interests and a great, great heart, despite its physical failings. He was tops as a blogger and in many other ways.
His death is, to me, a national loss.
His first post at the NewsBlog? August 6, 2003:
Welcome to my new blog.
If you’ve read me at Daily Kos and NetSlaves, then you know what to expect.
If not, it’s really simple: I say what I mean and mean what I say.
Later that day, he wrote more of an intro:
As a rule, insulting me is pointless. I don’t know you, unless I know you, and I have friends and a life, so I’ll just ignore or toss the insults. Argue the facts and things will be fine.
And since I’m here, let me say something else:
I don’t play cute with the war fan club folks at LGF, Newsmax, Tacticus, Opinion Journal and the rest of them. I think they’re wrong. They’re wrong about this war, this country and the people who run it. I don’t respect their opinions, because that’s all they have. They insult their opponents, they denigrate their arguments and they offer few facts. I grew up with conservatives who actually respected other people’s opinions. These people want to crush their opponents and treat their arguments as irrelevant. They’re not interested in discussion, but polemics. Their arguments are wrong and I will say they’re wrong when I discuss them.
Once again, thanks for your support.
Before that, on DKos, he wrote this about Iraq, less than 3 weeks after Bush launched that war:
Iraq is a place where outcomes matter. In 1920, two years after WW I, a nationwide rebellion erupted, and when asked, they’re still mad at the British for invading and staying. In 1991, the minute Saddam looked on the ropes, the knives came out. Now, we’ve created a black hole of a power vacuum. There is no one close to running the country. The Army is gone, the Baathists dying by the bucketload, the various factions are waiting to claim their stake.
Yet, I’m reading articles crowing about how well the war went. The problem is that deposing Saddam is like dumping the Czar in 1917. Just because you establish a democratic government, doesn’t mean Kerensky is going to stay in power. If you had said in 1916 that the US would be in Russia until 1920, fighting communists, you would have been deemed a madman.
Just because Saddam was an evil bastard, doesn’t mean his methods were ineffective. He kept control of a country with millions of guns and two active factions not dedicated to the territorial integrity of the country. He killed a lot of people to remain in power. The US does not have this option. The war alone has ruined the credibility of the US in the Arab World. Saddam’s methods are not available.
The US war against Saddam may soon be over, but that may only be the start of the Iraq war. There are millions of guns, rockets and mortars, billions of rounds of ammo, scattered across the country. No one knows who controls them or what they have planned. The Shia want control of their destiny, as do the Kurds, and the Sunnis may not be happy to lose power.
At the time, it seemed, no one in our federal government had an understanding of Iraq as great as Steve’s. And our troops and the Iraqi people continue to pay the cost of the ignorance that wasn’t Steve’s.
His Labor Day post that year, about real labor battles, stands out in my memory, with its conclusion.
There’s a real labor history, here, one which made the middle class. Not through paper shuffling, but hard, honest work. Once upon a time people fought for their rights with their fists and bats, not with witty letters to the editors of the New York Times.
Labor Day ain’t just about picnics and fat guys in cheap windbreakers.
And reading Steve always made me want to stand up with my fists and bats. In times like these, the complacency of blogging may be more civil with less risk, but in fact, we risk far more if we don’t find the tipping point where we can’t back up our words with real fight.
In Steve’s honor, should I rise from my fat ass and put it on the line someday (soon I hope), it will be in part because of the things Steve reminded me of, what he stood for and how he lived.
My condolences to all who loved him and had the pleasure of knowing him personally. We all have lost a very wise and very good man.
Addendum: Other tributes from those who knew him better, offline and on, include…
Julia at Sisyphus Shrugged
Melanie Mattson at Just A Bump In The Beltway describes her friendship with him.
Colorado Luis says this was his favorite post of Gilly’s.
Madeleine Kane provides a short audio interview with Steve.
Some of Steve’s better posts from his DKos days.
Sara Robinson of Orcinus, provides the most thorough overview of this remarkable man.
Shannikka of Political Sapphire provides an additional perspective that’s also important to hear.