CNN's LZ Granderson Still Spinning 'You Didn't Build That'

Author LZ Granderson took to the web pages of CNN to wax poetic as to why no one likes Mitt Romney. Assuming some J school credited this nitwit, they should immediately be stripped of all accreditation as an entity of higher education.

You see, he’s been zipping across the country using President Obama’s “You didn’t build that” quote out of context for an analogy about a student who worked hard in school and made the honor roll.

Romney spins it to make it sound as if the president is totally discrediting an individual’s hard work….

Had Granderson stopped at “individual,” one may have mistaken him for someone who actually knew something of what he was talking about. But he proves he is incapable of comprehending that the central debate is about individualism versus collectivism as real and competing material paradigms, not just slogans. It’s about the capital aspects of American society–not “how do you feel today,” or whether Granderson had to take the bus to school growing up.

Pardon me while I excerpt some of his tripe, this bit regarding Mitt Romney: 

In his mind, the world is full of bus drivers and honor roll students and the two are independent of each other, which is why he can characterize President Obama’s desire to help those less fortunate as creating a “culture of dependence.” What rubs so many people the wrong way is Romney’s inability to see that society is interdependent. There are moments in some of Romney’s speeches in which he comes across like the guy who doesn’t wave when you let him into traffic, because in his mind, he was able to merge on his own.

I can’t tell if Granderson is reliving some rosy memory of riding the bus in high school or the outrage of someone cutting him off on the freeway that morning on his way to work. Lord knows, whatever he’s thinking, it has nothing to do with American politics of a grown up sort.

And he goes on:

We only had one car and both my parents had to work. So if it wasn’t for the bus I would have had to attend the neighborhood schools that were within walking distance as opposed to the special schools for high academic achievers that were an hour’s ride away. I worked hard to get accepted into the programs. I worked to stay there. But I would not have been able to do any of those things if it weren’t for the bus drivers who made sure I got to school safe and on time.

Did you notice how careful Granderson was to let us know what a “high achiever” he was in high school? Snort. Collectivists always revel and reveal in hypocrisy. He’d like us to think he’s one for all and all for one, yet he can’t resist insisting how special he is, even when there was no need for it.

In the final analysis, all Granderson does is put out a bunch of maudlin platitudes about us all being in this thing together and gratitude somehow being the key to understanding the American electorate. 

CNN informs, “Granderson… was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and is a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com”.

That Granderson can segue from sports coverage at ESPN to blab about politics and that there are no real winners or losers in life for CNN only demonstrates how far the concepts of journalism and political commentary have fallen in a new media age.