Why Chris Hayes is dead wrong

Last week, Chris Hayes interviewed republican assemblywoman Michele Fiore of Nevada concerning the actions surrounding the deadbeat Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy.  Fiore ranted and raved, and as is often the case when Hayes interviews a nutjob in the interest of fairness, Hayes got his fucking clock cleaned (also happened when he interviewed Jennifer Stefano of Americans for Prosperity--it was just brutal). Not on the merits, mind you, but he ends up looking feckless like we all too often do when we think these battles can be won intellectually.  They can't--if they could be, we would have won a long time ago.   Republicans get this--that's why they go for the heart, not the head.

I didn't witness this carnage--after watching Hayes get his ass kicked several times now I just change the channel when he introduces a wingnut.  It's kind of like watching your favorite baseball team when they're getting the shit knocked out of them--life's hard enough without adding to the depression.  And these folks just go on the show to fire up their base--they're just yelling and yelling and Hayes thinks he's making them look batshit insane, but really he's just feeding the fire.

Crooks and Liars rightfully took Hayes to task for his foolhardiness with Fiore, causing Hayes to shoot back in a segment on Monday that he believed all viewpoints should be presented and he would continue to have those with conservative viewpoints on All In to argue their case.  In rebuttal, Crooks and Liars noted correctly that his conservative guests weren't debating a point, they were screaming over him and he was completely unprepared.  Hayes tried to rebut Fiore on an ensuing show, but as Crooks and Liars pointed out, by then it was way too late--kind of like a Presidential debate, you can spin it all you want after the fact, but if you lost the actual debate, you fucking lost the debate (google either of Hayes' interviews noted above, and you will find about ten conservative web site links crowing over their victories debating Hayes to every one Liberal cringing over said victories).

I think a couple more points are in order.  First of all, this notion that we the people are looking for arguments from both sides as an approach to the problems this nation faces is utter bullshit.  We're looking for fucking solutions, not more fucking arguments that frankly we've heard again and again.  Not to mention that republicans are more than happy to argue policy issues into eternity--if we're arguing, we're not solving our problems and that suits them just fine as they flat don't give a rat's ass about helping the American people.

Second, and more importantly, while Hayes is giving these people a voice to spew their lies and helping to keep republicans in office, real people are suffering.  One in six Americans live in poverty, one in five have been food insecure in the past year, millions of Americans have lost much needed unemployment benefits, families are being torn apart because we can't pass immigration reform,  poverty wages rule the day, income inequality is at record highs--you get the picture.  Frankly, Hayes sounds more like he's interested in hosting some lame ass network show like Meet the Press than helping to solve these problem.

There's a wing of our party/movement that still believes we can win these policy battles by reasoning with the right, presenting charts and graphs and figures, and in the end this will sway the Amerian people.  And it's this view that has led to us being on the defensive when it comes to policy, getting our ass kicked in these debates, or ending up with watered down legislation since Ronald Reagan was President.  I'm not advocating that we turn into a party of dunces like republicans, but there's a reason E.T. grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and Gandhi didn't.

Most Americans have neither the time nor the patience to delve into the finer points of our policy debates--which is why republicans scream the right words and phrases over their liberal counterparts.  If Hayes insists on having these clowns on his show, the least he can do is scream back instead of looking like a seal in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy.

Peace,
emaycee