Looking at the shocked and horrified rantings of the Right Wing about Senator Durbin's comments about Gitmo, as well as the Newsweek issue, Howard Dean, and countless others, they are exhibiting exactly the type of censorship that they decry on college campuses and in the media. This is a real opportunity to seize the high ground from the right-wing pundity, as well as point out their hypocrisy.
If you want to discuss the Downing Street Memo, you're "rehashing old news." If you discuss the criminal behavior that a very few of our troops have committed, you're "giving comfort to America's enemies." If you point out that the numbers don't add up on Social Security, you're an obstructionist.
You get the point here. The right wing isn't willing to debate any of the merits of these arguments, only to attack any points of view that don't glorify the GOP and America, in that order.
This is political correctness in a big way, and our leaders and the pundits on the web and in the media need to frame the issue that way to help make that point to the public as a whole.
More after the fold...
The important thing to remember here is that the right has been very effective in making unpopular arguments seem OK, because those arguments strike back against the liberal PC culture. In 2005, it's much more tolerable to attack homosexuality than tax cuts. Think about that.
If the Republicans insist on attacking the person raising an issue instead of debating the itself, we need to make that point clear in every column and on every Sunday morning talk show...
"They don't want to debate the fact that Bush lied, because it fails the right wing PC test."
"I guess it just isn't PC to talk about Tom DeLay getting indicted."
"I'm sure this will get me in trouble with the right wing PC police, but..."
"Who decided that the GOP gets to say what is politcally correct?"