Is liberalism dead? It is if you get it from MSNBC. Yesterday, Alan Grayson was on Weekends with Alex Witt. And it seemed like he was on a Fox News. Really, it was quite a spectacle. It was almost to the point of Witt saying, “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Grayson!”
First she wanted to know how much push back he was getting from his constituents. The implication was that of course everyone wants to bomb Syria. The facts are counter to that. This is (As usual!) a war that the power elites want. The people don’t want it. Despite the full court press from the White House and media, most people are still against bombing Syria. Of course, Grayson (who is really great in this interview and generally) pointed that out.
Next Witt countered him with the charge that he didn’t believe there was a chemical attack. He replied that with the new information, he did accept that there had been an attack but that it didn’t change things. What he didn’t mention was that he never said there was no attack. He only said that the evidence was ambiguous. Again, this stuff is right out of the Fox News playbook.
This is the point during the interview that it really got good. Alex Witt was clearly coming unglued because she started using the word “sir” a lot. It started with, “Do you question, sir, the president saying that this is a threat to our national security?” In the video she looks quite angry. As though what she really wants to say is, “Who are you—a mere Congressman!—to question our great and powerful leader—Mr. Hope and Change himself!—Barack Obama?!” Then she started listing allies in the region and Grayson just shot them down one after another, “They haven’t been attacked.” She does get him to admit that if one of our allies were attacked, we would be obligated by treaty to defend. But then he added, “That’s not this situation.”
When none of that worked, she went to a 30 second clip of Obama’s press conference. Then she glowered into the camera and said, “So what’s your response to that?” And, of course, Grayson had a very good response to that. The whole interview is Witt pushing, trying to find some place where Grayson will agree to the “bloody good war” that I guess all good Democrats now want. It’s an amazing bit of television.
MSNBC would not be reporting this stuff this way if a Republican were in the White House. And it shows where the political lines are. The “liberals” think bombing Obama rocks because he wants to bomb Syria and the “conservatives” think Obama stinks because he hasn’t done it already. Meanwhile, the American people are well to the left of our policymakers. As usual.