Scripting News: Republican rhetoric

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Republican rhetoric

The BS you hear from Republicans on radio, TV and in print would never play if it were repeated in an offline political discussion between citizens. With a majority favoring withdrawal from Iraq, even though the President is against it (which indicates a fairly strong conviction, imho), you can't get away with the kind of idiocy that Vice-President Cheney said in his Face The Nation interview last Sunday with Bob Schieffer, who patiently put up with it because it's his job to.

The Republicans repeatedly say the consequences of withdrawal is failure in Iraq. Which is easily pushed aside. We've already failed, and you're right, the consequences suck. What now?

Last night on Countdown, Olbermann asked the same questions I asked here yesterday, although much more politely. Why are the lives of the Virginia Tech students any more precious than the lives of our soldiers in Iraq, and please explain to me why they're more precious than the lives of Iraqi children, some much younger and more helpless than the Virginia students. They aren't. A life is a life, all are equal. And as Olbermann pointed out, the deaths in Iraq are more preventable than those from a random act of violence.

I had a radical idea watching a debate on TV about the war, between a Republican and a Democrat. Maybe now it's time to have some discussions of the future without the Republicans. They drop the level of discourse to the lowest level I've ever seen, and these days it's all about covering their ass for the disastrous things they've done to this country, and the rest of the world. Maybe it's time to stop giving them equal time so we can get on with fixing the mess they created and stop debating why they're not to blame.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:41 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

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Mar May