Pelosi on McCain/Hagee
Here:
“That behavior is outside the circle of civilized debate in our democracy,” Pelosi said during a Thursday conference call. “I certainly think John McCain should reject his endorsement and I’m sure it won’t be long before he does.”
I’ve checked back, and it appears that these folks at Red State do not feel that John McCain’s pride in the Hagee endorsement is representative of a “WASP cancer”, or that they have a personal responsibility to do surgery to remove it.
I don’t know what to think about all this, really. It seems obvious that if Obama is required to denounce and reject Farrakhan’s endorsement, then the same should be expected of McCain with respect to Hagee. But is it really the case that the behaviors of Farrakhan and Hagee, both honest representations of their own strongly held beliefs, are so far outside the “circle of civilized debate” in our society as to merit all this bother? I don’t know. I suppose it is one way to marginalize radicalism, if prominent persons do take care to decry the bad behavior of their own natural political allies. And, yeah - marginalization is a good way to deal with bad behavior - so that it doesn’t spread like a bad meme.
I’m just not sure that all this “denouncing” and “rejecting” is the best avenue with which to marginalize extremism. What about “ignoring”? What about using one’s prominence to promote people with better attitudes, instead? That’s more the route I’d like to see taken. But I don’t know. I’m still mulling this one over.
[...] Smijer thinks that if Barack Obama must denounce Louis Farrakhan’s support then so to should John McCain denounce the support of his controversial clerical boosters. However, he also wonders whether either one should be filling quite as much space in the newshole as they are: It seems obvious that if Obama is required to denounce and reject Farrakhan’s endorsement, then the same should be expected of McCain with respect to Hagee. But is it really the case that the behaviors of Farrakhan and Hagee, both honest representations of their own strongly held beliefs, are so far outside the “circle of civilized debate” in our society as to merit all this bother? I don’t know. I suppose it is one way to marginalize radicalism, if prominent persons do take care to decry the bad behavior of their own natural political allies. And, yeah - marginalization is a good way to deal with bad behavior - so that it doesn’t spread like a bad meme. [...]