#rsrh Let me explain ‘courage’ to MSNBC.

Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe seems to think that President Barack Obama was not a gutless coward by using his podium to insult Republicans – specifically, Paul Ryan, who Obama personally invited, apparently specifically so that Ryan would be insulted.  Let me clear this up for Mika, and every other member of the steadily-dwindling Obama cheering section.

  • When you are the President of the United States and speaking in a formal setting, it is standard practice for other people to show deference to the position that you hold, given that it is an office that is almost two and a half centuries old, and one that has been held by some of the finest men in America.  This deference is unfortunately informal, which means that there’s no actual rule against a President abusing it by using said deference as a shield behind which he may safely snipe at his betters without fear of retaliation.
  • Which effectively means that President Obama is no more ‘brave’ for insulting Paul Ryan in an arena where Paul Ryan cannot swing back – because Ryan respects the office more than President Obama himself does – than I am for formally calling President Barack Obama a gutless coward for doing this.
  • Admittedly, it’s for ostensibly different reasons.  In the President’s case, it’s because there’s no individual out there who can effectively call him on the carpet for being a gutless coward; in my case, it’s because I’m this random guy on the Internet on the wrong side of one heck of a political power imbalance.  But in both cases there is the appearance of bravery, but not the actual substance of it.

I would hope that this clears it up for Mika, but I kind of doubt it. Continue reading #rsrh Let me explain ‘courage’ to MSNBC.