My Open Exchange With a Conservative Spokesman
...before he threw me out of his conference.
By Conor Clarke, Amherst College
Tuesday August 1, 2006
When Roger Custer of Young America’s Foundation took to the stage and opened the 2006 Conservative Student Conference, the first thing he explained was why the gathering was necessary. “It’s a shame you have to be here,” he told the 300-odd students in attendance, but liberals’ campus stranglehold leaves YAF with no choice. The left, he continued, “has never been for open debate or discussion.” Instead, it shuts out conservative speakers and, when necessary, engages in name-calling and physical harassment. But confront liberals with arguments and ideas, Custer claimed, “and you’ll win every time.”
The speech was, at root, a paean to the marketplace of ideas—a marketplace that, by Custer’s lights, needed to be wrested away from the odious Left and restored to glorious openness. And it took exactly three hours and 47 minutes to expose this rhetoric for what it actually was: bullshit. I went to the conference, as a reporter for The Washington Monthly, to engage with conservative ideas and continue the research on college organizing that I had been doing all summer. I also agreed to blog on the event for campusprogress.org. But it was not to be. Two events and three posts after Custer’s opening remarks, I was approached by YAF’s spokesman, Jason Mattera, on my way to see Newt Gingrich. “Who do you work for?” Mattera demanded, with a touch of petulance. “The Washington Monthly,” I told him. “Are you writing for anyone else?” “I’m blogging for Campus Progress.”
And that did the trick. “There’s the elevator,” Mattera pointed. “I can have one of my interns push the down button.” But it didn’t end there. What happened to the vaunted marketplace of ideas, I asked. The openness and exchange?
You don’t get the sense, talking to Mattera, that he’s really an “ideas” guy. In fact, like a teenager who lords over his little brother, he seems to revel in power for its own sake—blissfully uninterested in arguments, and completely at ease with force. Indeed, the first justification that escaped Mattera’s lips was this: “Because I said so.” Following hot on the heels of hours of speeches in which conservatives insisted, repeatedly and emphatically, that they have the arguments and ideas to knock collegiate liberalism flat, this gem was delivered without the slightest hint of irony. It didn’t seem to occur to Mattera that “Because I said so” isn’t an especially good argument—or that, in fact, it’s not really an argument at all. (But this is not the first time Mattera has excluded reporters from the YAF conference. When a CampusProgress.org reporter, Julie Siegel, requested press credentials to cover it Mattera denied her, and said he would deny The Nation—the oldest weekly magazine in the country—as well.)
And then, like a thunderbolt, Mattera comes up with this: “You misrepresented yourself.” Hmmm, really? When? Could it have been when I originally asked for press credentials? No: I was, and am, reporting for The Washington Monthly. (Mattera knows and doesn’t deny this: I interviewed him three weeks ago.) So was it when Campus Progress asked me to blog? If so, Mattera would have to insist that any journalist who works for one publication but writes for several is required to give a running disclosure of all future work possibilities. And if that’s the case—if Mattera has stumbled upon some brave new world of journalistic ethics—he would do well to inform the thousands upon thousands of freelance journalists presently at work in the country.
Mattera, however, lacks the courage of those convictions. How should YAF respond, I asked him, if I were reporting for The Monthly and blogging for The National Review? The point of the thought experiment never seems to connect, because Mattera’s response is once again glib and irony-free. “You know what?” he says. “If you were with The National Review, I’d get you a seat right up front and have one of my interns give you a nice massage, and grab you a cup of Sunkist.” (Just who are these interns, forced to fetch drinks, push elevator buttons and give massages?) On Mattera’s intellectual horizon, however, the contradiction never dawns. So is the closeout ideological? “Sure, whatever,” he says.
Some people might call that censorship. And so, it turns out, would Mattera. “Alright,” he admits with a laugh. “It’s censorship.”
Well that settles that. (Unless, of course, Mattera denies everything he said, as he implied he would during our conversation.)
But if there’s a group that should be worried about Mattera’s startling lack of intellectual seriousness, it’s young conservatives. In my brief time at the conference, I had discussions—thoughtful discussions—about everything from taxation to military service. There was much that the conference-goers and I agreed on, but agreement was never the point: I like having my views criticized; it makes them stronger.
And I am perfectly happy to engage with smart, serious conservatives—just as most are perfectly happy to engage with me. But unless arguments and ideas are just window-dressing for cutthroat politics, Mattera should be an embarrassment to his movement.
(In fact, I’m not sure Mattera would have been excited to see at the conference National Review associate editor Alston Ramsey, who has strongly criticized Mattera for blocking Campus Progress from covering it.)
So if there’s a lesson to be learned from the conference, it’s that YAF just can’t stand criticism. For two years running, Campus Progress has opened the doors of its national student conference to reporters of all stripes, including the National Review and Human Events, both publications to which Jason Mattera contributes. But in the end, none of that matters. YAF pays lip service to free exchange, but it’s nothing more than a thin veneer for close-mindedness.
For Mattera, alas, hypocrisy isn’t enough. “I would give you my business card,” he quips as I turn to leave. “But you would probably just hit on me.” I look back, baffled. “Oh come on,” he says with a faux-apologetic grin. “What you liberals need is a sense of humor.”
Oh, of course. Ha-Ha-Ha. Forgive my PC brain for forgetting the timeless humor of homophobia. And maybe, in exchange, I’ll forgive Jason his intellectual cowardice. We can call it even.
Conor Clarke is a senior at Amherst and a summer 2006 intern with The Washington Monthly. His writing has appeared in Alternet and Slate.
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Comments
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Wow, sounds like Mattera is angling for a slot in the administration, perhaps working at NASA’s press office. What. A. Coward.
— JR - Aug 1, 11:56 AM - #wow. That is really really good insider info. That guy is crazy. so are those who worship Ronald Reagan though.
— cassandra roos - Aug 1, 02:14 PM - #Why were you writing for Campus Progress? It seems to me that you were abusing your credentials from the Washington Monthly. Did they know you were going to be blogging on their time?
— Amber Phelps - Aug 1, 02:32 PM - #Amber: I was writing for CP because they asked me to, because I wanted to, and because the Monthly was happy to let me. Is that abusing credentials?
— Conor - Aug 1, 02:59 PM - #Amber, did you not read the article? You are aware that most writers write for more than one publicantion at a time aren’t you? You aren’t?
— kindness - Aug 1, 04:42 PM - #Then you should apologize.
But our sweet Amber is nowhere to be found. Perhaps she has taken refuge under the shadow of the all-mighty Lord Mattera who doesn’t need a logical rationalization for his behavior. Haha, what a joke. There’s no reasoning with these people.
— Mark - Aug 1, 04:56 PM - #Mattera is a guy who STRONGLY supports the war in Iraq, but won’t enlist because (he says) he has chosen to fight the equally important war of ideas. It should perhaps be noted that the war of ideas is not dangerous and has a casualty rate of zero or thereabouts, whereas the war in Iraq is exceedingly dangerous with many casualties—-and is also unpleasant in general. Mattera should be asked (on camera, if possible) whether the danger issue entered into his decision. I blogged about this peculiar defect in the 101st Fighting Keyboarders.
— Leisureguy - Aug 1, 05:06 PM - #The left, he continued, “has never been for open debate or discussion.” Instead, it shuts out conservative speakers and, when necessary, engages in name-calling and physical harassment.
Kind of hypocritical to say the least…reminds of a line Rush Limbaugh said on his program one time…You people don’t need to think, I’ll do your thinking for you.
— haji - Aug 1, 05:29 PM - #“You don’t get the sense, talking to Mattera, that he’s really an “ideas” guy.”
Bingo.
— Joe - Aug 1, 06:59 PM - #The way you were treated was wrong, no doubt, but I hope it is not your contention that this sort of rudeness and stifling of alternate viewpoints is unique to conservatives.
— Robert O'Brien - Aug 1, 08:43 PM - #For Mattera, alas, hypocrisy isn’t enough. “I would give you my business card,” he quips as I turn to leave. “But you would probably just hit on me.” I look back, baffled. “Oh come on,” he says with a faux-apologetic grin. “What you liberals need is a sense of humor.”
Mr. Mattera may have some unresolved issues.
— burro - Aug 1, 09:44 PM - #Hello Mr. Clarke. :)
Saw this at Think Progress. It’s a very sad state of affairs when the typical GOP goonish behavior of exclusion has extended down to the student level. I suppose Mattera must worship his (minor) god, Rove.
You write well, and I can see you tried hard to be honest and state the facts as they happened, and you remembered. A good beginning for a young Journalist. The fact that Mattera has a record of this tyrannical behaviour adds credibility to your piece.
As for Amber Phelps, that’s probably Mattera in private in drag. People who behave like Mattera seem to have a history of fondness for wearing women’s clothing, especially lacy underwear. :) ;) Perhaps Mattera wants to follow in J. Edgar Hoover’s footsteps? He seems well on the way.
Thank you for that insight into the small minds of the extremist young conservatives! What a waste.
Cheers! :)
— Kryten42 - Aug 2, 01:14 AM - #Love the self-hating queer attempt at flirting. This man is a closet case and he might not even know it. Yeah I was in the closet briefly at one point, it takes one to know one. In all seriousness, ask any gay man, he would concur. Mattera’s munching mothballs!
— Robert Hopt - Aug 2, 01:45 AM - #The left, he continued, “has never been for open debate or discussion.” Instead, it shuts out conservative speakers and, when necessary, engages in name-calling and physical harassment.
I believe this is called projection. You know, when fools accuse others of being fools. He should be thankful that he’s never talked that way to me. I would be hard pressed not to kick his cowardly ass.
— Jeffery Faulk - Aug 2, 02:03 AM - #you can email Mr. Mattera at jmattera@yaf.org Send him some love from me
— matty - Aug 2, 06:02 AM - #Granted, Jason Mattera is an easy target. The question I have been pressing is this: If Mattera is incapable of honest, accurate, reasoned discussion, why is he the paid “spokesman” for a tax-exempt non-profit educational organization with an annual budget of 13 million dollars? What does it say about YAF?
— David Halperin - Aug 2, 06:35 AM - #JR: “Wow, sounds like Mattera is angling for a slot in the administration, perhaps working at NASA’s press office.”
— Michael Bérubé - Aug 2, 06:47 AM - #—Where he will no doubt do a heckuva job, as he has here.
OK does anyone remember the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of the 1930’s, when similarly situated NYC intellectuals (and many Jews BTW) went to fight the fascists in Spain? They fought & died for a cause they believed in. Many were wholly untrained, and yet fought valiantly & well. They still were on the losing side. So was much of the right in the 1930’s who supported the dictator Franco. Pat Buchanan still has a soft spot for the old Catholic reprobate & killer. So where are the Lincoln Brigades from the Neo-Con crowd? How about some fighting Repug’s? Yeah, they ‘served’ behind the walls of the Green Zone brushing up on their resumes with the CPA in Iraq. No experience necessary there either. Just all the Billions you could steal for your cronies. So where are the brave neo-Cons to put their bodies on the line for Freedom? The Lincoln Brigade wants to know! Cheers, ‘VJ’
— VJ - Aug 2, 06:54 AM - #What does it say about YAF?
— David Halperin – Aug 2, 06:35 AM
What it says is that YAF is like most student run organizations—leadership often is a function of popularity rather than substance. No real surprise. Much like modern US Democracy….
— garvey - Aug 2, 07:07 AM - #Is the YAF really that embarassed of their own agendas? Or are they just too cowardly to face even the possibility of confrontation from an alternate point of view?
— Will - Aug 2, 07:58 AM - #http://home.mchsi.com/~beyondbelief/mattera.jpg
— s - Aug 2, 11:21 AM - #the hair, the hair.
Jason Mattera is a great example of the sort of person who was given power during Nazi Germany – a bully who, before he donned his brownshirt, was nominally recognized by society at large, if at all. All of that arrogance – really, it’s quite breathtaking.
— Adrienne - Aug 2, 11:54 AM - #Sorry. I don’t check the site everyday. All I am saying if that if you said you were writing for the WM, that’s who you should be writing for. Especially after the whole fight with the other girl. Just seems shady, that’s all. I don’t owe anyone an apology. Does the WM know you were using their press pass for Campus Progress? These are reasonable questions.
— Amber Phelps - Aug 2, 11:59 AM - #Amber’s right, actually. I work many events in fashion, and you’d be kicked out if you were found to be writing for publications that haven’t been declared. It’s not even so much that they have to be approved (although, with Rethug jackasses like Mattera, it would turn out to be something like that), but that they know where to go to for contact sheets, their press kits, etc. It’s mostly for archival purposes, and also just out of courtesy…which I would hope we can exhibit, even if Rethugs can’t.
Having a cred for one commercial operation and using it for another can and will result in you losing your badge. In this case, the writer is guilty of selectivity. Doesn’t mean that Herr Mattera isn’t a total weakling slimebucket asshat, but rules are rules.
Anyway, I don’t think we’d be perfectly forgiving ourselves if somone came in with a NY Post badge, then proceeded to have stuff showing up on LGF or Freeperville. We’d be a bit ticked off. Might not eject the guy, but it would reflect poorly on NR. Not that that’s hard to do :P
And Amber made a valid point. She doesn’t need to apologize to anyone.
— venusdiva429 - Aug 2, 12:31 PM - #Actually, the Republican Party has a long history of using college students as their “mini-me brownshirts” to bully, threaten, and cheap-shot their way into power.
It is where Grover Norquist, the now politically moribund Ralph Reed and the Rasputin of modern day politics, Karl Rove got their start.
Although Karl Rove is arguably the first, second or third most powerful man in the nation, he never did get his college degree. He does have a doctorate in dirty tricks though.
Nixon’s little flying monkies.
-GSD
— GSD - Aug 2, 01:24 PM - #Both Amber and venusdiva miss the entire point of the article.
Properly credentialed journalist should not be denied admission under any circumstances.
For whom a journalist works is irrelevant! If the represented publication decides not to publish and another one does, has the journalist lied? Not at all!
But that is besides the point.
Does the publication make the author’s work any more or less truthful? Of course not. A published work must be judged for its own merits, regardless of the publisher or the author.
What I don’t understand is why Conor did not stand his ground and refuse to answer the innapropriate questions. He should also have refused to leave. He was given a badge and had done nothing wrong before being thrown out of the event.
If he played his cards right, he could have filed a criminal complaint, and later sued in civil court.
— KEVIN SCHMIDT, STERLING VA - Aug 2, 01:40 PM - #To understand people like Mattera it is helpful to look at how the insitutional support of the Republican Party supports such personalities, the nature of the community from which people like Mattera emerge, and finally, the social psychology of authoritarians. The work of Bob Altemeyer is quite good – for a popular version read: John W. Dean’s, Conservatives without Conscience. It sums up Mattera’s persona quite nicely, and those who act and believe like him. It is interesting that such behavior has been emprically proven to exist almost entirely by those who embrace conservative causes (the Left has a few no doubt running around – but, not to the extent the Right does).
— JT - Aug 2, 02:01 PM - #According to Mattera’s post on the Chronicle of Higher Ed.’s blog, Connor never received permission from The Washington Monthly to use his credentials to write for Campus Progress. Mattera claims the WM’s editor was completely unaware of Connor’s actions and was apologetic. If this is true, Connor should have been thrown out of the conference. Progressives should not be in the business of misrepresentation. Connor, you owe the CP community an explanation.
— right on the money - Aug 2, 02:19 PM - #25 years experience in journalism and I’ve never encountered the credentials concerns of amber or venusdiva. Generally you get credentialed if you can show that you have a real connection to at least one publication important enough to merit taking up space at the event. If you also write for others, that’s no concern at all.
— bob - Aug 2, 02:26 PM - ##26
On what grounds could Conor sue for premature ejection? Is Amherst a public university? What changes legally if Conor refuses to humor Mattera with direct answers to his questions?
Failure to disclose, need-to-know or not, leaves Conor wide open to criticism later about hidden agendas. Better to take the high road even if his antagonist chooses to do otherwise.
— FOIA Gras - Aug 2, 02:39 PM - #bob is correct on this one. Right on the Money is off base. WHy? Because the real issue is Mattera’s behavior and those conservatives who enjoy acting like that – i.e bullying. right on the money’s comments are designed to side track these arguments so that the real issue of why conservatives in the YAF use their aggression for the purpose of domination and not reason or debate is ignored.
— JT - Aug 2, 02:40 PM - ##28
— FOIA Gras - Aug 2, 02:41 PM - #see #4
I see the issue differently. Connor abused his credentials with The Washington Monthly. If the Monthly disagreed with Connor’s actions (assuming Mattera really did speak to the editor), then Connor is at fault. He should’ve just written for the publication that he was granted credentials for. Connor knowingly misrepresented himself. We know that Mattera would have never granted him credentials if Connor said that he’d be writing for the Monthly and blogging for CP. So instead, Connor left out the whole CP part. Why are we surprised that he got tossed?
— right on the money - Aug 2, 02:55 PM - #The #32 post asks us to read post #4, which has Connor saying “I was writing for CP because they asked me to, because I wanted to, and because the Monthly was happy to let me.” Connor, according to Mattera, the editor at WM has unaware that you were blogging for Campus Progress. The editor was apparently apologetic. Is that the case, yes or no? Please explain. Thank you.
— right on the money - Aug 2, 03:02 PM - #right-on-the-money,
— Redleg - Aug 2, 03:26 PM - #Nobody is surprised he “got tossed out.” It seems that ejecting people from conservative propaganda events is just part of the modern neo-con playbook. Mr. Clarke should have insisted that they remove him by force.
I wonder if Mattera’s softballs buddy, Jeff Gannon
(fake reporter, real gay male prostitute) was there.
Heck of a reporter, Jeffy!
— KEVIN SCHMIDT, STERLING VA - Aug 2, 03:46 PM - #Hi everyone. I just put up a blog post on the whole “the-managing-editor apologized-to-Jason-for allowing-me-to attend-without-permission” angle. The long and the short of it: That claim is false, and my director editor just e-mailed Mattera to assure him that I had permission. One mystery solved, I hope.
— Conor - Aug 2, 04:03 PM - #bob in #29 said it best.
But let’s assume times have changed. Where in the rules did it say that journalists who work for certain publishers could not attend this event? If the journalists could not know about these restrictions ahead of time, it would be unfair to throw them out of the event after their credentials were approved.
Conor did not abuse his credentials. That contention is ridiculous. He spoke the truth. Actually, he spoke too much of the truth.
Journalists spend money and time to cover these events. Because of that, to be tossed out for no good reason is grounds for a lawsuit.
Also, if a journalist is denied his right to cover a story, he is in fact being denied his right to earn money.
Therefore, Conor should be able to sue for financial damages.
— KEVIN SCHMIDT, STERLING VA - Aug 2, 04:05 PM - #Kevin,
— Patrick - Aug 2, 04:26 PM - #If you threw a party and the local Fox News crew knocked on the door wanting to “cover” the event and you denied them, could Rupert Murdoch sue you for damages? Just wanted to know your thoughts.
You’re surprised about the YAF ’s behavior? Not me. I was lucky enough to come across one of their appearances on c-span and couldn’t unglue myself from the screen. Way better than the sci-fi channel. There is no better nature program than those c-span videos for an in-depth study of authoritarianism, bigotry, paranoia, self-delusion, and sexual repression in the human species. Astounding levels of mass psychosis are at work here, and you expect rational dialogue?
— firefox - Aug 2, 04:37 PM - #I feel the underlying problem presented by YAF and similar organizations is that they symbolize a obstruction of progress. I’m not talking about difference between Dems and Reps. I’m talking about the new right that is getting it wrong. When movement starts, and it will, we will be faced with people like Mattera creating a gap in collective progress and long term sustainability. These egotistical capitalist types and the minions they are educating to take over this country next are not the people we want in office, it will only serve to furthur the gap between two sides that consistently argue to the point that no accord can be attained. I may be slightly off point in regards to the discussion at hand, but Mattera’s actions reflect a alarming ideology amongst conservatives.
— Russell Anderson - Aug 2, 05:34 PM - #Patrick,
— CAS - Aug 2, 05:39 PM - #Comparing apples to oranges is a pretty useless waste of time. Conor didn’t just knock on the door. He was ejected after being given permission to attend. Read the facts and keep your comments on track. Fox covers parties, I’m sure, but only by invitation, or else faces traspass charges like everyone else.
I understand what your saying and my comment was not in relation to apples and oranges, it was in relation to the fact that people like this ass are going to screw this country over and party bigotry is just fueling the fire. Maybe you should read a little more carefully
— Russell Anderson - Aug 2, 05:47 PM - #apparently it is I that needs to read a little more carefully since the comment I responded to was not direectly related to my own. my apologies for the brassness of it, but it is something that would have needed to be addressed eventually anyway.
— Russell Anderson - Aug 2, 05:49 PM - #Giving permission to attend an event as a journalist is a contract. Conor did not break the contract, but Mattera did when he kicked Conor out of the event for no justifiable reason.
Conor is due just compensation for his loss as a result of the broken contract.
— KEVIN SCHMIDT, STERLING VA - Aug 2, 07:01 PM - #Good work Conor. Give ‘em hell!
— DJ Rob - Aug 2, 07:08 PM - #I am old enough to have dealt with Pro-Goldwater YAF leadership in 1963 when I returned from the Peace Corps. They occupied the office next the young Democrats and they were willing to talk with me until I disagreed with them.
As with their posterity, the 1960’s model YAFers became strident supporters of the VietNam invasion, but they all wanted to serve in the battlefield of “ideas,” where you are less likely to get yourself killed.
Firefox’s post (#40) about YAF activities (shown on C-Span or not) being ”...an in-depth study of authoritarianism… etc.” was spot-on then (in 1963), and, as I watched C-Span’s coverage of the YAF’s, it is spot-on now!
These YAF folks are in desperate need of extensive psychiatric help and are screwed-up enough to not want the help or to be fearful of it. As in 1963, these are sad, sad folks. I feel more compassion for them than they seem to feel for anybody except those in the grips of their same malady.
Mattera is just the tip of the NeoCon Iceberg that is the YAF!
— hterrya - Aug 2, 07:15 PM - #Mattera exemplifies the right; he’s just doin’ the good works, you know? I’m sure he has a bright future in the GOP. See, we hate truth. It’s SO inconvenient.
— Chimpy McShithead - Aug 2, 07:25 PM - #First, I was a YAFFER when I went to school (‘03 grad). I attended the conferences and even helped to bring speakers to my school.
At my uni, there was no diversity (of thought). Well over 80% of the professors were Dems (stat taken from anonymous poll). YAF enabled us to bring in diverse speakers to add to campus debate, always a good thing. This isn’t a bullying organization. Many leftists protested YAF speakers on our campus, many times shouting them down and at the very least acting disrespectful. On several occasions we had tables of literature overturned and signs spray painted with graffiti. We actually had to hire security to protect our events. You tell me who the bully is.
With that said, I did enlist in the Marine Corps and have been to Iraq and back with a purple heart to boot. I can’t get over this nonsense that if you believe in the war you should be forced to fight in it. Combat is not for everybody and we are an all volunteer force. I also have several friends with college degrees who have enlisted. This argument is very misguided.
I see things through a different prism than many of you, but if I ever hold a conference you are all invited no matter what organization you register with.
— YAFFER - Aug 2, 09:04 PM - #Wow. Hypocrisy should be his name. I do not understand how he could deny TWO people who wanted to simply cover their event because of liberal affiliations when he has gained access to our previous conference. “Idea people” indeed. I laughed when I read that.
— Corey Ponder - Aug 2, 10:07 PM - #YAFFER,
John Kerry got several purple hearts but the GOP just mocked him for it.
As for the charge of “chickenhawk” against the YAFers and Young Republicans and others: supporting the war but not fighting in it does not make one a chickenhawk. What makes one a chickenhawk is supporting the war, not fighting in it, and then questioning the manhood of liberals for opposing the war.
— Redleg - Aug 2, 10:33 PM - #For those wondering, Mattera fits into the modern Republican Party as a “brace”. A “brace” (a word i just picked now, so there’s probably a more fitting one) holds up the Party and gives it its structure and form. Without him and others like him the Party would collapse onto the political landscape.
These types of people make up the skeleton of the Republican party—they aren’t there to do the heavy lifting, thinking, or sustaining. Instead, they provide the stiffness and form for the rest of the party.
Sort of like the guys with whips in those old movies about slaves on rowboats—they’re there to whip people who stop working toward the goals dicated by the top of the hierarchy and to keep the hierarchy a hierarchy.
— Shapeshifter - Aug 3, 04:09 AM - #To redleg,
your John Kerry remark is ignorant. There was no “mocking” by the GOP on this matter. The GOP had a beef with Kerry coming home from the war and calling US troops war criminals. This only served to incite the North Vietnamese. He was a male Jane Fonda.
The “chickenhawk” contention is simply liberal paranoia. No one is questioning your manhood. There is no draft. This is an all volunteer force. The men and women currently in the military do not want a draft because they don’t want to serve next to people who don’t want to be there. This draft-mongering is also senseless paranoia hyped up by conspiracy theorists and Bush haters.
Just as I respect the rights of those not wanting to serve, please respect the right of those that do. This means don’t be one of those idiots blocking entrances to recruiting stations and spraying graffiti. I know you are out there;)
This notion that YAFFERS dont want to server needs to be shut down. I know of two other YAFFERS who have followed me into the service. However, like I said before…combat is not for everyone and therefore everyone should not be forced into the service.
— YAFFER - Aug 3, 11:32 AM - #ALL Neocons are closet homosexuals, end of discussion!
— Arliss - Aug 3, 11:39 AM - #Mr. Clarke, bravo! A fine article…
I’m 72. When I see you “kids” in action, I think there may be hope for my country yet, even if I don’t last to see the movement bear fruit!
As for Mr. Mattera. he gives evidence of a mind which would require an infinity of increase to reach idiocy.
— Xristi Megas - Aug 3, 02:32 PM - #YAFFER —Parroting dogmatic right-wing simplistic assertions such as ” The GOP had a beef with Kerry coming home from the war and calling US troops war criminals. This only served to incite the North Vietnamese. He was a male Jane Fonda.” is highly unproductive.
— firefox - Aug 3, 03:17 PM - #Kindly take the time and do your own, independent research about the origins and history of the Vietnam war. Then do the same regarding John Kerry’s military record and his involvement with the Vets. Only then, when you have weighed the OBJECTIVE FACTS without wielding to the temptation of coloring them in the light of your own emotional preferences, will you be ready to discuss the matter.
firefox,
I don’t even know why I respond. Your elitist jargon and insinuations are bogus and an affront to me personally. Please don’t make such assumptions about me. I don’t have to justify myself to you.
Also, you seemed to have tip-toed around my original comment without an answer. You just passed it off as “dogmatic, right wing, etc.”
During a debate its “highly unproductive” to make assumptions about people, then ask that they come back to the table only after intense study on the matter. How about answering the point with a counterpoint?
— YAFFER - Aug 3, 09:33 PM - #Yaffer,
If you do not think that the GOP mocked Kerry about his purple hearts you are obviously forgeting those purple heart band-aids so many people were wearing at the Republican convention in 2004! If that is not mocking, how would you explain it? You say you got a purple heart, so I bet you know they aren’t passed out like candy. You, and everyone else who has ever served our country, should be livid that people who have never spent a single second in uniform would have the audacity to question the patriotism of a combat veteran.— Tim - Aug 4, 12:02 PM - #Yaffer, this link is to a photo taken on the floor of the Republican National Convention in 2004. Look at the chin. http://www.npr.org/politics/images/2004/sep/purpleheart140.040902.jpg
That’s not even including the Limbaugh-fueled atacks on Kerry for his first purple heart-winning combat wound. To say that the GOP didn’t mock him is flatly incorrect. There’s no room for a quibble, either—Republicans on the floor of the Republican Convention and throughout the media mocked and belittled the combat wounds of John Kerry. Whether it was motivated by an animus towards him stemming from his work with VVAW is irrelevant—they did it, and it’s undeniable.
— JR - Aug 5, 01:51 PM - #They all seem to be cut from the same cloth, don’t they? Read John Dean’s new book for more on this.
— SoonerThought - Aug 5, 03:50 PM - #The part about them not arguing, it reminds me of my ex-husband, he always considered himself the winner of every argument he refused to participate in. Naturally after realizing I was living with a thug, and a liar, PLUS manipulating me emotionally and psychologically, I snapped. Well, this kind of people do the same thing. It takes two to communicate.
— Zena - Aug 6, 07:49 PM - #Lets’ not forget this is the same rancid gene pool that brough us Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, just a generation ago; who reveled in the likes of Tom deLay. All of whom are being rapidly discedited, beaten in elections, or jailed.
— David O. - Aug 8, 02:18 PM - #I am approaching 50 but only hope that the students and young Americans of today fight this plague and expose their lust for power, greed and corruption for what it is- the yearning for a fascist government.
#54:
— Caroline - Aug 12, 12:35 AM - #Can we stop using homosexuality as an insult? My dad does that too, and it pisses me off! That’s like saying, “you throw like a girl,” which is basically an insult to the whole female gender. Being female or being gay should not be considered a weakness!
conservatives understand anger and emotion, not reason.
— Adam - Aug 12, 02:10 AM - #Mattera squirts venom for people who have strong stomachs and weak heads. But he must be confronted. I hope another liberal journalist will never refuse to leave in like circumstance.
— Stephen Pierson - Dec 25, 11:44 PM - #Mattera is a hypocritical idiot! I have left numerous responses to his childish rants on the YAF blog. He/they don’t want to publish the comments because he can’t debate anyone fair and square. At first, he did “debate” me-sounding like a petulant 7 year-old. He often calls someone who disagrees with him a “leftist” or “socialist” and basically says “nyah, nyah-so there!”.” In my case, (and probably many others) my comments are just never posted! Posting them would probably force Mattera/YAF to discuss issues like adults, with logical, factual arguments-something they cannot or will not do.
— MG - Aug 25, 10:52 PM - #