Boehner punts to public opinion

Speaker of the House John Boehner's line that it's not his duty to tell the American people what to think boots the responsibility to radio talk show idjits - like Hannity and Limbaugh and Levine - whose responsibility it is to tell their listening audience what they should think, whether or not their thoughts are actually supported by facts and logic.

What Boehner really should do to foster a reasoned discussion of the host of critical issues facing this country is to tell the American people, and especially his GOP consituency, HOW to think. Which is to find facts and not to believe just those things that reinforce your opinions.

Fat chance of that happening.

Boehner defends rights of Americans to be ill-informed

Yet the larger implications of his statement on a whole, especially in the context it was stated, are particularly troubling.

The Speaker told Gregory that people have a right to their beliefs and it wasn't his job to tell them what to think. However, as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.” Where the President was born and what religion he practices are not matters of belief or opinion. This is evidential information. Boehner himself says he accepts Obama's Hawaiian birth and Christianity as "facts as he understands them".

Not only is Boehner saying he considers the views of the ignorant and misinformed to be equally as valid as everyone else, but he strongly feels that as a leader he has no obligation to lead. He will just follow blithely where the unwitting wish.

Where is Boehner and Obama's courage to lead?

Gregory: "But that kind of ignorance about whether he's a Muslim doesn't concern you?"

Boehner: "Listen, the American people have the right to think what they want to think. I can't - it's not my job to tell them."

But of course it is, and Boehner tells them all the time. Spending should be cut. The health-care law is a job-killer. Obama shouldn't be reelected. And unlike the proper level of taxation or the preferable political party, Obama's citizenship and religion are matters of fact, not opinion. The new speaker simply finds it inconvenient to tell people who just put him in that office that they are flat-out wrong. Indeed, Boehner and colleagues are the grateful beneficiaries of mass delusions about Obama's citizenship and religion. Birthers vote - and not for Democrats.

Boehner says it’s not his job to convince Birthers they are wrong (VIDEO)


John Boehner defends dumb people