Congressman Hinchey
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The LGF reader who recorded Rep. Hinchey’s twisted conspiracy delusions informs me that there were at least two people videotaping the entire meeting, and at least two others making audio recordings.
Yet, we see no mention of Hinchey’s rant in any published report.
UPDATE at 2/21/05 10:34:16 am:
Here’s a good comment from “curdie,” the reader who made the Hinchey recording.
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I'm the person who recorded the audio clip, and I want to make sure we get this right.
The great lesson of this incident is that hatred blinds people to the truth.
No matter who originated the documents supplied to Mary Mapes, her hatred of George Bush blinded her to the obvious truth that the documents were forged.
I don't know whether Rep. Hinchey is really a Bush hater or not, but certainly his catering to the Bush hatred of his audience blinded him to the damage he does to himself, his party, and this country by making wild accusations.
Attitudes such as Howard Dean's "I hate Republicans and all they stand for" blinds people to whatever truth may be contained in their opponents' arguments. They end up opposing at least some positions which sensible voters can see are obviously valid. They "misunderestimate" President Bush's intelligence. They fail to see the destructive social consequences of legalized abortion. They fail to see the threat of terrorism clearly.
They end up losing. And we all end up losing. How can this nation survive when a large fraction of one of its only two political parties is flying blind?
I think that secularism has something to do with this. A strong theme in non-secular religious traditions is respect, and even celebration and thanksgiving, for one's enemies. Bill O'Reilly has accurately pointed out the dangers of the secular progressivist (I would add "utopian") agenda. One reason why the secularists are so desperate is that if they lose the political battle, they have lost _everything_. When Christians, for example, lose the political battle, they still have God.
We must try to help these people. How can we help them?
o By defeating them.
o By by refusing to adopt their hatred.
o By celebrating and being thankful for them.
And now for the hard part. One concern I have with being described as an LGF "operative" is that some of what I read in LGF pages drops to the level of contempt for people with differing opinions. I have no problem with contempt for the opinions themselves, but contempt for people is an exceedingly short distance from hatred. Do we want to adopt the disastrous shortcomings of our opponents?
Some of the questionable language falls into the category of humor. But perhaps that's how the people in the meeting I attended felt at one time too. Like Rep. Hinchey, we are speaking in public. Anyone could be listening.
And that's the end of my sermon for today.
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