Using a non-political event like a college graduation ceremony to push your views that democracy will end if the candidate you do not like wins, to most people, seems inappropriate, but to MSNBC’s host of The 11th Hour, Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday, famous PBS documentarian Ken Burns doing just that recently was a cause for celebration.

Ruhle began, “The last thing before we go, wise words from Ken Burns. Award-winning documentary filmmaker and historian Ken Burns has done his best to remain politically neutral over the years. That is, until now. He explained this to the graduating students of Brandeis University on why he cannot stay silent about this upcoming presidential election. Watch this.”

 

 

Ruhle wants to portray Burns as the guy who made a baseball documentary in the 90s, but, unfortunately for her, he is also the guy who compared Florida under Ron DeSantis to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

As for Burns’s actual remarks, he waxed poetic about the upcoming election, “There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. When, as Mercy Otis Warren would say, ‘the checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed.’”

He also referred to Donald Trump as “is the opioid of all opioids. An easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact, with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction, and addiction. A bigger delusion, James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence. Our national suicide, as Mr. Lincoln prophesizes.”

He urged the graduates to “not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer.”

After the clip, Ruhle returned to add, “Strong words from the soft-spoken and great Ken Burns for taking us off the air tonight.”

Like many in public broadcasting, Burns may have spoken in a relatively hushed tone, but “soft” is not an appropriate way of describing Republicans as drugs that will deliver “national suicide,” especially at a commencement address. 

Here is a transcript for the May 28 show:

MSNBC The 11th Hour

5/28/2024

11:58 PM ET

STEPHANIE RUHLE: The last thing before we go tonight, wise words from Ken Burns. Award-winning documentary filmmaker and historian Ken Burns has done his best to remain politically neutral over the years. That is, until now. He explained this to the graduating students of Brandeis University on why he cannot stay silent about this upcoming presidential election. Watch this.

KEN BURNS: There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. When, as Mercy Otis Warren would say, “the checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed.” 

The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids. An easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact, with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction, and addiction. A bigger delusion, James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence. Our national suicide, as Mr. Lincoln prophesizes

Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer. 

[Jump Cut]

Remember what Louis Brandeis said. The most important political office is that of the private citizen. Vote, you indelibly—please vote.  You indelibly underscore citizenship and most important, our kinship with each other when you do. Good luck and Godspeed

RUHLE: Strong words from the soft-spoken and great Ken Burns for taking us off the air tonight.