Regular readers of the In Box know that I’m a big fan of serious debate. I actually love being convinced (by argument or new facts) that I’m wrong about something.<\/p>\n
The world is more interesting when it’s shaped and reshaped by nuance. And in that conversation we need all stripes, from the very very liberal to the very very conservative.<\/p>\n
But I find myself recoiling more and more often from a type of rhetoric from the Right that leaves me frankly disgusted.<\/p>\n
I recoiled during the congressional campaign when Rush Limbaugh cracked wise about Dede Scozzafava’s “bestiality.”<\/p>\n
I grew up in a conservative family attending a conservative church and there’s no way that kind of disgusting language has a place in any serious conversation.<\/p>\n
I recoiled again this week when certain elements on the Right tried to smear President Obama after the shootings at Fort Hood.<\/p>\n
The highly influential Drudge Report placed a prominent link on their front page for two days to a blog post called “Ragged Thots”<\/a> alleging that Mr. Obama’s response to the shooting was “jolting, if not emotionally disturbing.”<\/p>\n The meme? This is a President disconnected from America’s military, insensitive to the death of our soldiers.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, prominent conservative propagandist Jerome Corsi posted to WorldNet Daily<\/a> (another prominent conservative website) arguing that the shooter at Fort Hood “advised Obama transition.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday’s massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security advisory role in President Barack Obama’s transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document. <\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As you can probably guess, the most cursory journalistic rigor demonstrates that both of these suggestions are utterly, categorically, demonstrably false.<\/p>\n