Jonathan Haidt, The moral roots of liberals and conservatives, TED Talks, March 2008
I was going to have a completely different opening to the bobblehead discussion this week, but as with the Sunday shows, the massacre in the Connecticut elementary school changed everything. But I don't want to talk about how the Sunday shows will studiously avoid the real issues. I want to bring up exactly what none of these politicians will ever face: shame. Let me be clear: the NRA is NOT a gun rights group. The NRA is a conservative lobby. They don't care about your Second Amendment rights; they use the Second Amendment as a wedge to support Republicans. Those twenty 6 and 7 year olds? They're acceptable collateral damage to keep Republicans in office and freak out enough populace about their guns being taken away. Seriously, you brain-addled idiots who keep falling for this? The only legislation regarding guns that Obama has signed has loosened gun regulations.
Shame on those gun-toting boneheads for falling for that. Shame on the NRA for continuing to bully the conversation out of existence. Shame on the politicians for not seeing the NRA for what they really are. And shame on the media for not being honest with us about all of it. Institutions invariably fall to corruption, as Haidt points out (and that is the thesis of Chris Hayes' book as well). The only thing that appears to work to amend these behaviors is to shame them. So let's do it. Let us rain shame down on all of these people who have the blood of twenty 6 and 7 year olds on their hands for their avarice and cowardice. This is a choice we must make: what kind of country do we want to be? Why is it easier for a parent to get an assault rifle than mental illness assistance for a disabled child? Do we want to be a country where the massacre of children is acceptable collateral damage?
Shame on anyone who thinks so. Damn them to hell before they relegate all of us to the hell of their making.
ABC's "This Week" -- Gov. Dan Malloy, D-Conn.; Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Reps. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Mayor Pedro Segarra of Hartford, Conn. Round table: Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, TIME Magazine political columnist Joe Klein, ABC News' George Will, and Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile.
NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Malloy; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Round table: Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); NY Times columnist David Brooks; President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten; Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge; Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett; and Sociologist Michael Eric Dyson.
CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Malloy; Connecticut state police Lt. Paul Vance; Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. Round table: The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence President Dan Gross, LeHigh University's James Peterson, The Daily Beast's David Frum and The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg.
MSNBC's "UP with Chris Hayes" -- Goldie Taylor, MSNBC contributor; Ezra Klein, MSNBC Policy Analyst and Washington Post columnist; David Sirota, Author and host of KHOW-AM’s “The Rundown with Sirota and Brown”; Jane McAlevey, author of “Building the Labor Movement in Obama’s Second Term”; Sarah Deer, assistant professor at William Mitchell College of Law and Citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma; Akhil Amar, a Yale Law School Sterling Professor of law; Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore City police officer and assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Guests TBA
CNN's "State of the Union" -- Live coverage of the Connecticut school shooting story; Gov. John Hickenlooper, Colo.; Andrew Solomon, author, "Noonday Dreamer: An Atlas of Depression"; Malloy; Blumenthal; Murphy; Stephen Barton, Aurora, Colo. shooting victim.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- pre-empted for Connecticut shooting coverage.
CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- Connecticut shooting coverage, guests TBA
"Fox News Sunday" _ Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
So what's catching your eye this morning?
