There’s a frustrating point in a conversation when you really nobody is listening to you. They seem to be talking to you, or about you, but nothing you say is being processed.
Being right doesn’t help. In fact, it’s the fear that you might be right that brings out this talking-about behavior. Nobody in the camp that opposes gay marriage has a coherent argument that applies to a secular government. So they don’t listen–just blather on using trite phrases that make sense within a narrow community.
Fear of the truth, or the potential of finding a different truth than the one you cherish is a strong force. Imagine you prosecuted someone–someone who was then put to death. Imagine you live in a State where people cheer for executions. Then imagine someone produced a pile of well-researched evidence that showed he was innocent.
But let’s make it really bad. Let’s say the evidence was around at the time. No mixed up lab results or anything like that. The research pretty strongly suggests you were just too lazy or didn’t care. You, and the people who cheered at the execution, don’t want to discuss this possibility. Instead, you say something like:
“These guys are crusaders,” Schiwetz told the Houston Chronicle. “What can I say?”
That’s it. No discussion–dismiss the report beforehand. Anything else would take a whole boatload of courage, and I’m not sure how many people have that much on hand.
What if You’re a Generally Pointless Politician?
Your whole job is to impress the voters, right? Or at least the “base.” But you can’t seem to do anything for them, not nationally. What do you do? What if there was some other group that you could pick on, a group that had no way to complain. What if picking on this other group could be done in a way that your “base” would approve? So there’s this nerdy guy with no friends. Your friends are all bigger than you, but you can walk over and take this guy’s lunch money. Your friends will even back you up.
Except the nerdy kid calls you out
“Let’s go out into the hall, just you and me.”
What do you do then? If you’re a coward, you can use the same tactic. “Ha, you don’t understand. I don’t have to go out in the hall. My friends aren’t listening to your stupid taunts and I’m not either.”
Trent Franks is that kind of coward. When Eleanor Holmes Norton called him out to the hall, he said:
“Those, like Representative Holmes Norton, who oppose the D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on the basis that its primary sponsor is from a different state simply fail to understand a Constitutional principle that couldn’t be more plain,” he said. “Congress has the seminal and incontrovertible responsibility for making legislative policy in the District of Columbia.”
That’s tantamount to saying “I’m not listening to you, na na.” Franks did not even allow Holmes to testify in a hearing about her own district.
Joining The Coward Trent Franks in legislating for DC with no input from the city is The Coward Phil Gingrey. He offered a non-binding measure that attacked DC in a way that would never be done nationally. Following Franks lead, he denied Holmes the chance to even testify.
Then, possibly because he did not want the stupid quote to come directly from his mouth, Gingrey had his spokesperson say:
the Constitution “specifically gives Congress the power to ‘exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases, whatsoever’ over the District of Columbia. To suggest this amendment was intended to bully D.C. rather than provide relief for the 40,000 active duty military personnel who reside within D.C.’s borders is to miss the point entirely.”
In other words: “we aren’t listening to you. This isn’t about you. This is about us picking on you to impress our friends.” Coward.
