New Talking Point

It's so funny. (Or not). I've come to know the new talking points from the right as soon as I hear absolute bullshit coming from a pundit that I have never heard anyone say before which really only seems to divert from the narrative against their platform and does nothing to support their assertions or diminish ours. Last week, I believe, was the first time I heard their latest distraction from the anti-choice discussion. My warning sirens went off immediately when they insinuated that the Regressives were the ones who really respect women because they believe that women are capable of thinking about more than just one issue, abortion. Curious, right? You believe we are capable of deep, critical analysis about things but we still should have no capacity to determine how to build our own families or make decisions about our bodies. Brilliant. Please, tell me more. I have now heard it several times and I do not believe the idea of the new talking point was well enough defined as to enable clear or coherent retellings by those who offer them to us.

This evening Chris Matthews had a new pundit on, KellyAnne Conway, who I have seen around lately. In a conversation tonight about the Regressive Party having such despicable ideas about immigration, KellyAnne offers us this little nugget. Either she is too ignorant to realize where their new talking point is appropriate or she is too green to understand only the Fox audience would miss its unnecessary insertion into the conversation. Somehow she managed to get this in to distract from the fact that their candidates (who always demand it is the job of those on the right to defend the Constitution) are now suggesting we need to get rid of the 14th Amendment. She tells us that the candidates on the right can think above the waist and, "its not about women's health - that's breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and the rest of it..." I don't know ... when discussing the genuine importance of women's health and compelling the viewers to believe that you are the ones who care deeply, does 'and the rest of it' really suffice?

So this is their latest talking point. Of course it is ridiculous. Sometimes I honestly believe that they give them to us to leave us dumbfounded and unable to reply at all. This new one sets your brain spinning with so many arguments that you can't catch your brain quickly enough to counter their bullshit. Of course abortions and contraception are about women's health. We do not go see our mechanic for those issues. Of course candidates on the left don't believe that is all we care about. That is why they also talk to us about the environment and schools and societal struggles and the economy and the myriad other things we care about that the right would like to find ways to ignore or ruin altogether.

We all need to be mindful of the talking points as they come out. We all need to be ready with the thoughtful counter punch to ideas coming from the right which are utterly unimaginable and usually laughable. Otherwise whomever offers the bullshit gets to walk away having convinced themselves and anyone else paying attention that they were right by virtue of having left you dumbstruck. Christ they're awful.

We also need to be mindful of where these talking points are coming from. Start noticing the job titles of their pundits. KellyAnne's job title is "Republican Pollster." It would seem that a pollster would be getting statistical data and disseminating necessary information to the party and the candidate(s) paying for her services. But this pollster is on different shows giving us talking points on every issue imaginable, completely devoid of statistics or support of data offered. What is the point of having a pollster on the show who doesn't offer you statistics? I have recently come to find out a lot about the pundits on the right which has offered profound pause. I hope to write about it soon. They are crazy. And we, as a society, are assholes for allowing them to even have a voice.