O'Donnell and Paul

Lawrence O'Donnell has a newish talk show on MSNBC, and the guest tonight was well-known libertarian Ron Paul of Texas. (Note, though, that Paul runs under the Republican Party banner.)

Mr. O'Donnell, may I ask that in future, you be a little more thoughtful than you were tonight?

You kept trying to bait Mr. Paul. He kept trying to explain the logic of his positions, and you either kept deliberately ignoring or failed to grasp his reasoning. You're not a dummy, so I have to assume you were ignoring him. That's not right. You're better than that.

Ron Paul's positions may involve outcomes with which you disagree, like the eventual end of Medicare (and I would assume Social Security, though tonight's discussion didn't touch on that). That's arguably less important than the fact that Paul's stance on these issues not only has been consistent over time, but flows logically from his core libertarianism. For instance, I think he made a valuable point in claiming that the Civil Rights Act infringed on private property by forcing businesses to implement desegregation. The ends might have been laudable -- you're probably right that we'd still have segregation today if that legislation hadn't passed -- but Paul certainly made a convincing case that the legislation on its face was unconstitutional, and it's important for all of us to understand what it means to live within the boundaries of our Constitution.

You had a chance to open up a terribly important discussion on whether ends always justify means in our legislation. You could have discussed how we can reconcile our Constitution with our desire not to leave people without help if they need it, or even if we can reconcile the two. Instead, you kept trying to get Paul to admit he wanted to kill Medicare, presumably so you and others could pull the clip out later.

In order for this country to have a full debate on the topics that divide us, we need for the citizenry to understand fully what the possible consequences of various actions will be. If, for instance, people think we need a smaller government, people need to understand what will flow from the act of reducing the size of government.

Ron Paul, whether you agree with him or not, at least is not airbrushing the picture. That makes him far more valuable to our national dialogue than most politicos. We need to foster a greater understanding of what he's saying, because I have the uneasy feeling that far too many of his onetime Tea Party fledglings don't grasp the consequences of their anti-government rhetoric the way he does.

So Mr. O'Donnell, in the interest of our national debate, listen to him next time.

(This is not to say that everybody deserves the same courtesy. For instance, the arrogant jackass whom Rachel Maddow attempted to interview last week, who kept bleating that she was being sarcastic, was simply a prick who wanted air time without any questioning of his positions or statements. More than once I wished Maddow had had the gumption to cut off the braying donkey's microphone, since he was contributing nothing but horseshit to the interview.)