"A Still, Small Voice..."

How well was Barack Obama’s appeal for “civil discourse” in Tucson heard? Apparently not very well. In fact his powerful speech seems to have fallen on some very deaf ears.

Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word last night could not be dissuaded from harping on John Boehner’s non-appearance at the Tucson memorial. No matter how many guests pointed out that Boehner had contributed much bipartisan effort to healing intervention, O’Donnell continued to insist that Boehner was at a cocktail party instead of doing what O’Donnell considered to be his duty.

Chris Matthews made a statement of apology for his similar remarks of the previous day, saying yesterday that he had been informed that Boehner had remained in Washington to attend some sort of bipartisan memorial in that city. It was not in any of the clips but was between segments so I do not remember the details, but it was gracefully done. It seems he was listening. Hours later O’Donnell was still attacking Boehner for attending a cocktail party.

Paul Krugman has an editorial in the New York Times today in which he says that, “We are a deeply divided nation and likely to remain one for a long time.” He goes on at great length about the deep and bitter divide and claims that “there is no middle ground” between the positions. He says that readers know which side he is on and assures readers that he will “no doubt spend a lot of time pointing out the hypocrisy and logical fallacies” of the other side.

I’m not saying anyone is evil here, nor that they are wrong. I’m just saying that I wish they had been listening with more open minds when President Obama spoke in Tucson.