11 February, 2007

Marcotte & McEwan Capitulate

There has been some hoopla recently over the hiring of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan as official bloggers for the John Edwards campaign. This article up at CBCNews.com gives a concise account of the story. The two women were hired and then folks went to look at their personal blogs only to find many contentious statements. (Ms. Marcotte blogs at Pandagon and Ms. McEwan at Shakepeare's Sister.) Both women and Edwards received a lot of heat with William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights labeling the pair "anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots". Apolgies were issued and Marcotte & McEwan were allowed to continue their roles within the Edwards campaign. A post by Ms. Marcotte about the Duke rape case was singled out by many and it was eventually deleted. (Of course, it is still in Google's cache and has been reprinted by many a blogger.)

Reading that she'd deleted a post only added to my disappointment upon reading her apology.

My intention is never to offend anyone for his or her personal beliefs, and I am sorry if anyone was personally offended by writings meant only as criticisms of public politics.

I suggest the reader head to Pandagon and check it out for him- or herself because, frankly, I find that statement to be utter bullshit. She spends copious amounts of time responding to statements and actions by misogynists, right-wingers that she calls "wingnuts", religious people who would ban abortion, et al and it is patently obvious that she is offended by what these people say and do. In turn, she lashes out fighting fire with fire and now she is to be found backpedaling. I find it especially irritating that she apologizes for offending religious people, as if belief in a misogynistic, war-mongering deity is supposed to shield you from being offended by others. While I don't always agree with what Ms. Marcotte says at Pandagon, I have always respected that she speaks her mind and lets her passion on serious issues spill over into her words. No more, apparently.

This is exactly the kind of double standard that people like Sam Harris speak out against. God forbid (pun intended) that religious people go through life having to hear criticism of their silly beliefs and certain among them having to hear that their pernicious actions in the public realm should be fought. I mentioned William Donohue above and would direct readers to this page at Media Matters which details what a bigoted, homophobic, anti-Semetic, hypocritical asshole he is.

If Abolitionists tip-toed around for fear of offending Christians who quoted the Bible in support of slavery, who knows how long that peculiar institution would have been with us. The whole Marcotte-McEwan saga is an allegory for the Left in 21st century America. Some lefty will say that gay people ought to be treated fairly which causes a righty to cry that he's offended. The lefty then retreats and cowers lest a homophobe be offended with being called such. The Left doesn't really stand up for what it believes much anymore. Instead it sugar-coats its beliefs and struggles to keep them in the purview of voters. To be sure, political expediency is an issue with Marcotte-McEwan but the Left or progressives or whatever label you want to use will never be able to advance an agenda of equality and social justice if it engages in a strategic advance to the rear every time power that has just had truth spoken to it gets on TV and says that its offended.

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