John's Blog

CT Forum: The Culture War

Micaela and I went to our second Connecticut Forum on Friday night. Topic was the Culture War. The panelists included Frank Rich, Margaret Carlson, David Brooks, and Ralph Reid. In generally, it was pretty amazing how calm, erudite, and centrist the discussion was. In particular, I thought Brooks and Rich were great.

Carlson started off the evening attempting to bait Reid several times, but he graciously ignored her - Southern charm I guess. Anyway, I was struck by Reid's ability to turn off his Southern accent for the most part. In the past, when I've seen him on CNN or the Daily Show, the accent is quite thick. Yet, sitting on a stage in Hartford, it was barely there. However, I was very very disappointed when he disingenuously and purposely ignored the point that demographics are in inevitability shifting with regard to gay marriage. He kept parroting the "64% of Americans oppose gay marriage" factoid even after it was clearly pointed out that that even young evangelicals are far less opposed that their parents.

Possibly the best moment of the evening occurred when Reid was talking about the role of the Senate on advise and consent for judges. The moderator - Harvard/Oxford Professor Jonathan Zittrain - jumped in and pointed out that 88% of Bush's appointees had been confirmed compared to 81% for Clinton. Brooks astutely observed out that our national unwillingness to have a frank discussion on abortion has led to 30 years of escalation that has culminated in a judicial appointment process that has been a utterly poisoned.

Better yet, talking about the "nuclear option" with regard to the judicial filibuster, Brooks eruditely pointed out that true conservatives would respect the rules and history of the institution of the Senate rather than trying to change the rules to get their way.

Anywho, it was a fun evening for two political dorks like us.

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