Posted on 09/30/2005 7:52:43 PM PDT by veronica
Former Drug Czar and Secretary of Education Bill Bennett's comments over skin color, crime and abortion have lots of folks howling, from Nancy Pelosi to Howard Dean to the NAACP to Ted Kennedy to the White House (go figure). What prompted this bipartisan outrage?
Here's the incendiary remark that he made on his popular radio program:
"…if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
Bennett has pointed out, correctly, that his remarks have been taken out of context. Even liberal commentators like Matt Yglesias and Brad DeLong feel the context of the remarks is mitigating and Bennett has no reason to apologize for them.
But let's forget about the context for a minute. Context can be so… so… oh, well, it can take all the fun out of it. So let's just focus on what Bennett said, totally out of context.
DeLong and Yglesias and are sufficiently reality-based enough to know that blacks commit a disproportionate share of violent crimes in the United States. This is not news. It's not even a controversial proposition. Given that fact, it's not a monumentally difficult conceptual leap to surmise that if you aborted every black child in the country from here on out (a hideousness that no one is advocating), the crime rate would drop.
Without getting into the tricky context of Bennett's remarks -- that doing so would be morally reprehensible, etc. -- what more is there to say about it? That it isn't true? No one, as of this writing, has argued that.
Bill Clinton claimed while he was president that he wanted to have a "national conversation on race." Perhaps he was being sincere. But it's plain from recent events that hardly anyone else in this country really, truly wants to have a "conversation" on this topic. If the mindless, knee-jerk reaction to Bennett's remarks -- including from places like the White House -- is any indicator, no one has any interest in an honest discussion of race.
Perhaps it's nothing new, but we live in a time where uncomfortable truths -- even challenging questions -- are to be shouted down and, if possible, driven from the public square. Harvard University's Larry Summers discovered this recently. Now Bill Bennett is on the receiving end of this same idiotarian nonsense. America is the worse for it. Thank goodness some liberals were honest enough to defend him. Let's hope others see fit to do the same.
Oh, I'm sure that's the reason. It's only becomes offensive because a conservative had the audacity to discuss it.
These loser, pathetic liberals will do just about anything. Griping and whining is all they know how to do.
The left would still carp about it, because it's not because he said "black", "white", "purple", "yellow" or "brown", or narrowing it down to one single gender, it's because the quote was taken out of context by omitting the trailing end of the comment.
When liberals actually do something that actually helps people ... then I'll listen to their lectures
What I hear now is nothing but a bunch of trouble makers who are not interested in an honest discussion
They are more interested in dividing our country
I didn't hear the full context of what he said till this morning
So no .. not everyone knew
And if one was to go on just what the media reported, .. then yes, one could say it was inappropriate
What Bennett said was true (hardly "dumb") and in any other age without George Soros-financed websites, no one would have noticed.
I agree. Pathetic isn't it
That's because they (the left) is a bunch of lying yappers.
No, they're not liars, they're dishonest. I just happen to belong to a party that has championed Civil Rights in this country for 41 years, and I tie myself to a belief that abortion is wrong, that life is sacred and should not be destroyed, or done away with by convenience.
Am so glad Ted Kennedy weigh in on this.
Always good to see this democrat take the high ground.
If that fat lying slob was a republican he would have
been locked up for manslaughter.
"I find it truly astonishing how they missed the point as to what Mr. Bennett was saying!"
They did not miss it. They just knew that with the help of the MSM and the stupidity of 60% of Americans they could make it into a political $hit storm.
Even Bush jumped on the side of the idiots. Not very helpful at all.
We have been inculcated with taboos such a race until we can no longer even SPEAK the TRUTH and discuss it without hysterics from the LEFT and the PC crowds that comprise some on this board and 99% of the MSM.
ABC News with Bob Woodruff, has started a regular Freakonomics segment.
Like you what is the conundrum is that Mr. Bennett taken either in our out of context was spot on. And when taken in context, he has such a moral high ground on this, it really is ludicrous that the likes of the misogynist murderer Ted Kennedy has stuck is $0.000000000001 into the mix.
I do love Mr. Bennett's retort concerning moral lecturing from the drunken sot from Mass.
Bill Bennett: "Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's see, you got Kennedy. I will -- I'll not take instruction from Teddy Kennedy. A young woman likely drowned because of his negligence. I'll take no moral instruction with him. That's much worse than legal gambling what Teddy Kennedy did. He should make no judgments at all about people. He shouldn't be in the Senate."
I have always liked Mr. Bennett and his keen intellect and stone honesty. This incident only reaffirms that feeling.
"But why would I say such a thing? I mean, so what? I don't like abortions, and I don't like suicide attacks, and I don't promote abortions to reduce crime, and I don't promote genocide to reduce suicide attacks. "
I have no idea why you would say such a thing, but you just did in exactly the same context that Bennett did. Bennett's point is exactly the point you are trying to make. He said he would never suggest such a thing. He thought using reducing the crime rate (or increasing tax revenues) as a justification was in no way an appropriate context to discuss abortion. That was his point. Isn't it yours?
I watched John Gibson try to explain this on O'Reilly's show tonight and that Dem spokeswoman Kristin literally cut him off at the knees. He was tripping over his tongue at the end. Dems may not be in charge (thank goodness) but they are masters of the soundbite and the glib comeback.
I have felt the same way. What has happened to the people on this site who do not seem to care about the truth? It seems like they pretend to be conservatives but when the chips are down, they are joining the anti-conservatives nuts in this country.
Exactly. But, since he's a Democrat with a famous last name, he's hoisted up on a pedestal.
That is why you find out the truth for yourself. Don't depend on the MSM to tell the truth about anything.
Even in the context of his quote it was a stupid thing to say on a "professional level".It how you get fired real fast . In principle i see nothing wrong with what he said overall. I'm speaking strictly on a prefessional level.Did he not think he'd get slammed for saying that statement that way ?Poor judgement at least.
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