A friend writes, regarding yesterday's post on conservative homophobe Ryan Sorba:
"considering most in the audience booed that dbag, it seems a bit of a stretch to label the entire party as such, doesn't it?"
He definitely has a point (and one echoed by Megan McCardle in a good post today). I had initially watched this clip at work with the volume down, and didn't notice that it was booing (rather than the crow'd approval). Watching it again it's pretty clear that a good portion of the audience was shouting Sorba down, not cheering him on (or booing the people shouting him down).
I think you do have to give props to the folks in the crowd for not putting up with a homophobic rant, and I did not intend to imply that the Republican party, or all the attendees at the party hold Sorba's views. On the other hand, I do think it's fair to note that Sorba, who has a history of homophobic ranting, was given the podium at an event attended by most of the stars in the GOP firmament, and that those attendees should be pressured to distance themselves from Sorba's comments. To put the shoe on the other foot, can you imagine the press reaction if Obama, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, etc. attended a liberal conference where a speaker at the podium had a similar rant about rural communities or born-again Christians?
The fact is, there are significant elements of the right that are very homophobic - and the political discourse in this country, and the cause of human rights, will be furthered when the (relatively) responsible elements of the GOP take steps to distance themselves from the homophobic fringe, and make it clear that it's unacceptable. The "booers" at CPAC took a step in that direction, I'd like to see their effort echoed by the bigshot CPAC attendees.
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