re: #10 Dreggas

according to TPM he chuckled too.

Well, to be honest, when speaking in front of a crowd, it’s a difficult, jarring thing to switch from a convivial speech to suddenly hectoring and lecturing them. Yes, it would have been a bold and brave thing to do, and the right thing. But imagine the situation - you’re making a speech, people are nodding their heads, they’re agreeing, you’re agreeing, someone says something inappropriate, the crowd laughs - I think more of us would sort of chuckle and try to defuse the situation in a non-threatening manner, rather than suddenly switching to a bully pulpit, than we might admit. And it’s not really surprising that he didn’t immediately go fuming to a press release about how some idiot in the crowd had said something nasty.

I don’t think his reaction to this particular situation is entirely unreasonable. It’s not like Mike Hogan, who decided to make that sort of joke all by himself. Paul Broun doesn’t get a pass from me, though - that little Marxist/Nazi comparison demonstrates pretty clearly that he is a cultie nutjob, much like his supporters.

It may be weak, but to be honest, I’m a little glad and also a little surprised that he actually felt the need to backpedal at all. That’s almost a refreshing change these days. Typically nowadays the reaction of wingnuts when they get called out on ridiculous, hateful rhetoric is to a) make a tu quoque, b) double down and insist that they’re actually right), or c) both. Such as Scott ‘Yes, it’s totally normal and right that I should be talking to a corrupt robber baron like I’m a middle manager reporting to my boss’ Walker, to quote a recent example. Maybe I’m too grateful for small mercies.