Jonathan Rauch may be one of the few gay marriage advocates who can make a compelling case for gay marriage without demonizing supporters of the traditional definition of the ancient institution, but when it comes to blogging, well, he adopts a condescending attitude toward the new medium which sounds a lot like the outrage many in Catholic hierarchy once expressed about Mr. Gutenberg’s (then-*)new-fangled contraption.
He, Megan McArdle reports, is making “fun of the entire medium” (of blogging), whining that “the past decade and more” the blogosphere has produced little “of distinction or durability.” As if mainstream journalism had produced much of distinction or durability in the same time frame. (H/t: Glenn Reynolds.)
And then, as my pal Sonicfrog reports, Rauch, borrowing a left-wing talking point (and counter to all available evidence), laments that while the nation stands on the brink of defaulting on the national debt, Republicans are debating gays. Sonic shows that, well, this just isn’t so:
Because, you know, Republican candidates have NOT been talking about the poor economy and their solution for this whole time! Even non-candidates have had plenty to say!
Jonathan, Google is your friend. Learn to use it!
Now, you may firmly, thoroughly, with no hesitation, with every fiber in your being, absolutely disagree with Republicans on the solutions they offer concerning jobs growth, but it’s a little disingenuous to try and push the meme that they haven’t been talking about it!
Read the whole thing. Do think Jonathan needs pay a little more attention to discourse in Republican circles since the advent of Mr. Obama. Republicans have been talking a lot about federal spending, the national debt and budget deficits. Just try reading about the Tea Party.
*back in the Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries.
UPDATE: Sonicfrog alerts us to something he added this to his post:
It’s not that Republicans are not talking about jobs and the economy… It, well, the same ‘ol thing… The media is not interested in what Republicans have to say about it. So, they report on “The Gay” thing instead! So, if you don’t dig, you think “The Gay” is more important, because that is what the media is focusing on.
Wonder why?
You think a journalist of Rauch’s caliber would be aware of that media bias and would be able do some reporting of his own (after all he does live in Washington) to see just exactly what Republicans are talking about.
Since when have facts gotten in the way of a good liberal screed?
If anything, the irony is that the same attitude Rauch et. al. express is the Catholic Church expressed when Luther translated the bible into German.
he adopts a condescending attitude toward the new medium which sounds a lot like the outrage many in Catholic hierarchy once expressed about Mr. Gutenberg’s (then-*)new-fangled contraption.
Where do you see this, i.e. what books did you read this in? I’m not challenging you but am curious since I’ve never heard this before. Was it just over Luther’s Bible and various tracts or a general criticism?
Rauch delivers this conclusion in his blog piece:
I find this a curious complaint. In fact, it make be wonder if I know what “blog” even means.
Where, pray tell, am I going to go to learn about gay marriage and why people value it and why people oppose it? I have a mind and I can sort the weeds from the flowers. The net allows for an interchange of ideas that is unavailable elsewhere.
Perhaps Rauch is a great writer and has written great thoughts on gay marriage, but so what? I do not accumulate a brain full of great monographs and adopt them as principle. Hopefully, others also arrive at their core beliefs through critical analysis.
I wonder how Rauch is using the word “research” in praising the net. Does he mean “Angie’s list” or Wikipedia?
It produced the end of Dan Rather and it has produced an instant community bulletin board for identifying bias, factual errors and pure demagoguery. It has made the reader/listener/observer the equal of the commentator and brought equality to the playground of the elitist gods of “journalism.”
The vernacular bible was a big innovation that printing made viral. As for citation of Catholic objections to it, it seems the whole tale of Luther is basically about that controversy. The Vulgate was the term of derision, for the works and for the unwashed audience. Of course they were all pretty much unwashed back then.
I also was ignorant of the focus on gay issues in the Republican pre-primary, especially to the exclusion of fiscal issues. It makes you wonder how accurate pros were in those dark days before the internets.
But supporters of Democrats should be cautious with the gay marriage issue. It does not poll well among a couple Dem bulwarks, like for example the black vote. Clinton knew this. Obama seems not to or at least believes his obscurant powers are superior to the old Arkansas swamp rat. Unlikely. http://whenfallsthecoliseum.com/2011/02/28/clintons-fudge/
Yeah Helio, that is a strange thing to write. Some is good (an end to the aforementioned Rather and his sloppy / eroded journalistic standards), some, maybe not so much. Both the 9 / 11 and Birther conspiracy flourished via blogs. The revelation of KSM being tortured was first revealed on a blog (Mary Wheeler I think). We wouldn’t know who Andrew Sullivan, Glen Reynolds, Steve McIntyre, and Dan Blatt are if not for blogs! (throwing you a bone Dan 🙂 )
It was blogs that broke the spell Al Gore and the alarmists had over politicians and the public via the ClimateGate scandal. Mickey Kaus kept the John Edwards questions alive until the National Enquirer finally showed some journalistic guts and dug for the truth!
Rauch is still immersed in the old school journalistic model when he relates blogging to the rest of main stream journalism.
Added this to my post:
JohnAGJ, the point is largely a rhetorical flourish based on their concern over, as noted above in #4, concern over Luther’s Vulgate. And the fact that the Catholic hierarchy then did not control the printing presses.
It seems precisely at odds with the real world in which Republican Governors like Chris Christie and Scott Walker have put fixing their states’ economies at the top of the “To Do” list. While New York’s governor is more concerned with legalizing gay marriage and California’s governor is obsessed with forcing elementary school students to learn about gay history.
V – Problem is, liberals simply don’t see what Christie and Walker are doing is “fixing the state economy”. They in fact view it as the opposite. In one sense, they have a point, one point – cutting government work force WILL of course put a negative ding in the unemployment numbers, at least in the short term. So both governors will have to work very hard to attract new business from other states to make up the difference. That said, the lower tax rates both men favor will be an incentive for business to hire of move to their states…. Oh, and with states like California working feverishly to shove as many businesses out of their state as they can, maybe the governors mentioned above don’t have to work quite as hard as I thought! 🙂
This is an entertaining little kabuki dance on the part of Jonathan “I’m Not a Single-Issue Voter” Rauch to rationalize and explain away the fact that he is in fact a single-issue voter. He’s doing a valiant but futile effort to hide a raging gay-sex liberal behind a cheap plastic beaded curtain of intellectual frippery.
To borrow a great line from Family Guy, Rauch is so far in the closet, he’s finding Christmas presents.
(Putting this in the right thread)
Didn’t Steam Engine operators complain about the rise of the internal combustion engine?
Didn’t lantern makers lament Edison’s invention?
Didn’t the Pony Express riders curse the telegraph for making letters so ‘impersonal’?
Rauche is just afraid of being dragged kicking and screaming into the future.
7: Ok. Yet there were vernacular Bibles in Europe long before Luther. Heck, long before Tyndale or Wycliffe. The first Germanic Bible was by Ulfilas in the 4th century, while the Mentel Bible was printed on the Gutenberg press about 75 years before Luther’s Bible. The main objection by the Catholic Church appeared to be the translation choices made by Protestants, as well as the notes. There was much to criticize the CC for back then (today as well) but I think things like this get overlooked far too much.
To Sonicfrog’s point…..we should thank the blogging class if for no other reason than I never had to say “President John F. Kerry”.
Bruce… I’ll drink to that!!! Well, later on. It’s still a wee bit too early to justify taking a nip.
Just to give you an idea of where Rauch’s head is at politically, http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/07/these-people-are-dangerous.html“>there is this!
No wonder he dislikes bloggers so much. Now see, aren’t you glad one of us still goes to Sully’s blog to see what’s going on?
PS. The title of the blog post is “These People Are Dangerous”.
I think this (Gay Patriot) has become my favorite blog. And I’m not gay. 😉 I find some of the best stuff here. So glad you have written for Big Hollywood in the past or I would have never known you existed. 🙂
I love it. Obama is up at a press conference having a meltdown, ranting about band-aids and peas, and threatening to cut off Social Security checks if he doesn’t get his way, and Rauch is calling him “reasonable”.
Rauch has gone full-bore Excitable Andi. I expect the Trig Trooferism to set in any minute, especially since he’s already comparing the Tea Party and conservative Republicans to Nazis and wife-beaters. It’s amazing the degree to which these Obama syncophants will go to excuse the fact that they have Hopey Changey-flavor kool-aid on their faces, in their ears, and dripping from their hair.
By the way, if anyone in Rauch’s immediate circle is listening, going full-bore masturbatory for the Obamamessiah is doing little more than convincing other people that Rauch’s beliefs on gay-sex marriage are about as valid as Louis Farrakhan’s beliefs on race.
Wait… I thought Katrina WAS Bush’s fault… Oh, I’m so confused now!
“I think this (Gay Patriot) has become my favorite blog. And I’m not gay. I find some of the best stuff here.”
I feel the same way (although I am gay). This blog helped me get through a tough time (http://canadianrattlesnake.blogspot.com/2011/07/necessary-post.html) but I keep reading it for the “stuff.”
Politics aside, Rauch is the classic case of the self-centered pseudo-intellectual brat. I graduated Yale, dammit! I wrote my books! They should be listening to ME!
He stands with others on a tall, crumbling tower in complete denial.