Speaking truth to power
So the Brady Campaign turned off comments on their blogs, but forgot to turn off trackbacks. (Can they turn off trackbacks?) Why would they do that? We were having such good Reasoned Discourse! It’s not our fault the only commenters they could field were only capable of appeals to emotion and ad hominem attacks. One commenter, Kelli, flatly refused to stop insulting other commenters with whom she disagreed. Another, macca, turns out to be a member of the board of the Brady Campaign from Texas. You should see the stuff she wrote. Sad.
No more thinking will be required or allowed–just feel the warm fuzzy vibrations.
I think the Brady Campaign missed an excellent opportunity here. I applaud Paul for opening up his blog to all comments (reasonable ones anyway) and thought it would be an excellent place for an honest interchange of ideas. However, except for the few times Zach chimed in, there was very little of that. Paul, despite what he said about all options being on the table (like arming properly-trained school teachers), ended up ignoring the input from the pro-civil rights side.
As has already been pointed out, Kelli and macca also ignored the inconvenient evidence and dealt in feelings and insults. Even early on, Kelli would write to Paul and Zach on the blog (I guess the rest of us weren’t suppose to read her posts) and call the pro-rights side names just because we believed in self-defense and enjoyed firearms.
Regardless of what Paul says, we are all in this together and we are all part of the solution. I am sure he understands that without cooperation from our side naything the BC tries to accomplish will be very difficult or impossible. This is evident in the bill to “improve” the NICS background check. Without the NRA, that would have been doomed to failure.
I am sure that it was embarrassing for the BC that their blog was dominated by the pro-civil rights side. However, like it or not, that is a reflection of our society. If the BC wants to succeed, they need to recognize that and work accordingly.
Michael