| Didn't watch the Republican YouTube debates last night, but the big hubbub in the blogosphere this morning is that -- gasp -- some of the folks who asked the questions were...get ready!...I mean this is shocking!...Democrats!
Whoa.
Two thoughts here.
First, this outrage seems to be the natural result of years of staged Republican events and coddling by the media, from Bush's "town hall" meetings to Brit Hume's shameless pandering to the GOP candidates at the Fox-sponsored debate in South Carolina. Republicans and their supporters are not used to fielding or considering tough questions.
Second, what Melissa McEwan said:
This was supposed to be a debate where the Republican candidates got asked questions by average people-not necessarily Republican average people. And just because a question exposes a profound ideological hypocrisy-e.g. "What punishment would you give to women who get abortions if abortion is criminalized?" or "Why don't you support gays serving in the military?" (despite all the support-the-troops rhetoric)-doesn't mean the question isn't fair.
What's hilariously disingenuous about their outrage is that there are plenty of conservative voters who want answers to those questions. They have to ignore the reality of the GOP base in order to be pissed off about these questions-which is why they're hiding behind indignation about the questioners instead.
In short, the righties are reaching into their bag of tricks and pulling out an oldie-but-a-goodie. Instead of discussing the substantive issues raised by these tough questions, righties are instead making the questions the issue. In the past, the media has dutifully focused on the irrelevant questions of bias and ignored the significant questions.
Such as,
Why are gays not allowed to serve in the military?
What punishment would you give women who have had abortions, after they've been outlawed?
What are you going to do to stop the flow of lead toys into the country from China?
So...do you think this time will be any different? |
