Thursday, March 4, 2010

Hippie Punching 201: The Village

Double G takes a look at the Village reaction to last night's Alan Grayson/Michele Bachmann debate on Larry King Live and produces a primer on Village Hippie Punching for you, the erstwhile reader.
My Salon colleague, Mark Benjamin, writes about last night's Larry King Show -- featuring a debate between Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson and GOP Rep. Michelle Bachmann -- and does so by repeatedly branding Grayson as being every bit as "crazy" as Bachmann.  Beginning with the article's headline ("Bachmann and Grayson: A diary of crazy") to his sarcastic description of "these two towering intellects" to his claim that Grayson and Bachmann are "the Candy Stripers of Crazy of their parties," Benjamin denigrates Grayson's intellect and mental health by depicting him -- with virtually no cited basis -- as the Democratic mirror image of Bachmann's rabid, out-of-touch extremism.  This view of Grayson has become a virtual Washington platitude, solidified by The New York Times' David Herszenhorn's dismissal of Grayson as "the latest incarnation of what in the American political idiom is known as a wing nut."

There are so many things wrong this analysis.  To begin with, it's a classic case of false journalistic objectivity:  the compulsion of journalists to posit equivalencies between the "two sides" regardless of whether they are actually equal (since I'm calling a GOP member of Congress "crazy," I now have to find a Democrat to so label).  Benjamin cites numerous Bachmann statements that demonstrate her penchant for bizarre claims (and there are many he omitted), but points to only one Grayson statement:   his famous floor speech in which he claimed: "If you get sick in America, the Republican health care plan is this:  Die quickly."  One could reasonably object to that statement as unduly inflammatory rhetoric, but Grayson was one of the only members of Congress willing to forcefully connect health care policy to the actual lives (and deaths) of American citizens.  There's nothing crazy about dramatically emphasizing that causal connection; far crazier is to ignore it.

But more important, Grayson has managed to have more positive impact on more substantive matters than any House freshman in a long time (indeed, he makes more of a positive impact than the vast majority of members of Congress generally).  He has tapped into his background as successful litigator and his Harvard degrees in law and public policy to shape public discussion on a wide range of issues --  from his highly effective grilling of the Fed Vice Chair regarding massive, secretive Fed activities and aggressive investigation of the fraud surrounding the Wall Street bailout to his unparalleled work exposing defense contractor corruption, his efforts to warn of the unconstitutional underpinnings of anti-ACORN legislation (a federal court proved him right), his creative (if not wise) legislative proposals to limit corporate influence in politics, and his successful, bipartisan crusade to bring more transparency to the Fed.  What conceivable basis exists for disparaging as "crazy" one of the few members of Congress who is both willing and able to bring attention to some of the most severe corruption and worst excesses of our political establishment?
And he's right, of course.  The whole point of the Bachmann/Grayson debate is not because those two are incredibly powerful Washington figures, but becuase Bachmann says crazy crap all the time, and apparently Alan Grayson has to be singled out as the "Democrat equivalent".  There has to be one, or else that's media being too liberal.

Except the problem is Grayson has quite a pedigree in his first term as an effective lawmaker who has championed true bipartisan causes and has done so in an intelligent and forceful manner.  Far easier to call him a moonbat and ignore the guy.  That's the way Washington works, after all.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's funny how since you're so far left he seems rational. Yea some guy who goes on the floor and says

"The Republican health care plan is this: 'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.'" must not be crazy at all. Then that wasn't enough he had to go on and say
“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America."

Yes clearly not an idiot. It has nothing to do with the media "being too liberal" it has to do with the fact that he is a fucking wackjob. Anyone who thinks politicians are great or believe in them need their head checked, hope you have good health insurance :-)

Istanbul ( not Constantinople) said...

See... if you read carefully (try sounding out the words as you go), you'll see that the point of the post was something like this:

Crazy Statements:

Grayson - 1

Bachmann: 100

These things are not equal.

Anonymous said...

Funny how you try talking down to me but fail to count, I listed 2 statements. I guess over exaggerating one number means you can ignore points made about the other.

Next time you want to be a condescending prick make sure you're at least somewhat accurate.

Zandar said...

Man, can we trade this guy in?

Anonymous said...

Again, no response to me calling you out in your own blog for being biased to liberals and pointing out how you're wrong. I'll fully admit I don't know everything, but at least I'm able to go read both sides and see what makes sense, ya know..think for myself

StarStorm said...

Wait wait wait wait. Is the Libertarian Crusader for Truthiness and Corporate Justice actually demanding someone who is an admittedly progressive blogger go punch some hippies to be taken seriously?

In Ur Blog Eatin Waffles (Accept no fail imitations) said...

*cough*

there's still plenty of Stupid to fight on all sides

*cough*

Needless to say there's a lot of Stupid out there still coming from both political parties, when we need solutions.

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