Old and New Left: The Condescending v. The Despicable

Okay, I’d resolved to stand by in bemused silence as the left gives itself a victory lap over Bryan Fischer leaving Idaho, but the comments have gone a little too far.

First, I must acknowledge that Kevin Richert kindly pointed out a typo in the last post on the Fischer matter because I want to acknowledge that kindness before I take his most recent post apart:

Bryan Fischer, a former Idaho Senate chaplain, branched out from social issues to become a leading voice on all things conservative.

The gas tax, global warming, the future of newspapers. All of these and more were frequent topics on Fischer’s Idaho Values Alliance Web site. Fischer was the type of person with an opinion about anything, and a penchant for getting ink and airtime.

First of all, not to nitpick but isn’t talking about someone who is still alive in the past tense a little odd. It seems like Richert has an obituary for Fischer written and just copied the words over. “He was the type of person…”  

Secondly, I love how Richert is distancing himself and his paper, by acting as if Fischer being in the paper was something that Richert and the paper had nothing to do with. It’s the revival of the “Bryan Fischer made me cover him” meme from last Summer.

So if Fischer was mentally marking days on the calendar last week, he didn’t show it. So the news Monday that Fischer will leave Idaho for a talk radio host’s job in Mississippi came as a surprise.

This is the thing that I think perhaps the left is missing.  The way Richert writes about, Fischer’s moving to Mississippi to host, “Good Morning Tupelo.”  This is a National show on a National radio network that is based out of Tupelo. I don’t know if Fischer will be on every single station but American Family Radio has talk stations in places as large as Columbus, Ohio and Dallas, Texas. Fischer’s influence is likely to grow which makes this leftist fist pumping look well-lame. Imagine Dan Popkey being hired by USA Today and conservatives celebrating like we drove him out of Idaho. That would be l-a-m-e. Lame.

And, I think, it presents an opportunity for the state’s conservative movement to repackage itself.

Rule number one of politics for conservatives: Don’t take unsolicited advice from newspapers that endorse moderates in the spring and Democrats in the fall.

While Fischer built himself into a prominent voice in Idaho politics, I think he lectured more than he debated. More than once, other bloggers corrected me when we referred to Fischer as a “blogger,” since his Web site didn’t allow comments. The “preaching to the choir” line, however cheap, actually applies here.

It’s any blogger’s prerogative to set up his or her own rules, but I think the Idaho Values Alliance’s one-way dialogue was misguided. Fischer was shrewd enough to use the Internet to promote his positions and use e-mail alerts to mobilize like-minded Idahoans (having been on the receiving end of one such alert, I can attest that he had a following).

Fischer recognized the immediacy of Internet politics, but ignored its interactivity. And I think that’s a mistake.

The whole blogger claptrap is nonsense. First of all, Fischer (as far as I know) never requested to be called a blogger. Second, not having comments doesn’t make you “not a blog” as both Fort Boise and Clayton Cramer are recognized blogs without comments.

Thirdly, the conclusion that because Bryan Fischer didn’t allow anonymous commenters to hijack his site for continual, endless debate that he would have to keep up with that he “lectured” rather than debated is absurd.

 Fischer has appeared on Nate Shellman’s show as well as other talk shows throughout the valley and taken questions from all comers. He’s also actually appeared in debates over issues such as Intelligent Design and gay marriage. Very odd for someone who “mainly lectures.”   And it should be pointed out that Fischer began doing an “IVA in the blogosphere” section for several months where he linked to nearly any blogger critic of his without comment. On top of that, Bubblehead has actually pointed to times when Fischer responded to e-mails.

The ironic thing is that Richert’s piece is a bit condescending and yes, a lecture. But that’s about the worse I can say, “It’s condescending and off-base.” It’s within the realm of decent public discussion.

I think what Jill Kuraitis and Senator Nicole LeFavour  said is an another matter. Both of them have written what I consider to be despicable pieces. While Kuraitis as a journalist acknowledges that “there is no evidence that Fischer’s actions have led to direct violence” she links his name to the killing of  George Tiller in discussing “fanaticism”, both women suggest Bryan Fischer is to blame for the state’s high teen suicide rate because of his writing against homosexuality. Writes Kuraitis, “Fischer made it harder and harder for gay kids in Idaho to find acceptance, and for that, his actions are more than deplorable – they’re dangerous.”

Bryan Fischer is the Idaho left’s new George W. Bush who can be blamed for anything.

Of course, its rubbish. Ada County (where Fischer lives and has the most influence) has a teen suicide rate of 8.6 per 100,000.

If any place would have an atmosphere accepting enough to quell teen suicides linked to homosexuality, it would be San Francisco. During the same time period, San Francisco had a youth suicide rate of 9.0. Higher than Ada County’s.

If one wants to blame someone for the rate of teen suicide, perhaps we should start with those who have attacked the work of people who want to promote traditional families. Three out of four teen suicides occur in a home in which a parent is absent.  Yet, the far left and even the Center-Left has mocked the efforts of people like Bryan Fischer and Rep. Steve Thayn (R-Emmett) as some whimsical quest to bring back Ozzie and Harriet.

If I suggested that the Idaho Statesman through its opposition to the Family Task Force in 2007 and misleading reporting on family issues was causing teen suicides, I would be attacked for extremist language and for demonizing my political opponents.

I would be called intolerant, unlike our friends on the left who casually link Bryan Fischer to a cold-blooded killer in Kansas and blame him for mixed up kids committing suicide here in Idaho.

If nothing else, I think Kuraitis and LeFavour have shown where the real intolerance lies. It is on the new left.

Fischer often has been friends with some odd characters. He was good friends with ACLU Idaho’s founder Jack Van Valkenburg. He’d had a good relationship with Former Councilman Jerome Mapp, an opponent of the Ten Commandments Monument.

Of course, Mapp is gone, Van Valkenburg is retired, and what’s emerging on the left is the LeFavour wing which believes its personal stake in political issues entitles it to behave poorly, and go after its opponents in personal, nasty terms.

And what do we say of the future of journalism?  In five years, we’ll be far more likely to be reading New West, than the Idaho Statesman. If conservatives don’t come up with an alternative to New West, we may find ourselves missing Kevin Richert.