Specious Argument of the Day

Ramesh Ponnuru on hate crimes at The Corner.

Bradford Plumer takes another stab at the issue. He seems to think that it would be bigoted for conservatives to accept laws against hate crimes while opposing their extension to cover hate crimes motivated by hostility to gays. I don't see why a conservative who thinks hate-crimes laws are a bad idea generally couldn't conclude that they aren't going to be uprooted from the statute books but shouldn't be expanded in scope, either. Politicians make this sort of judgment all the time.

Plumer also tries to provide more evidence for the claim that local law enforcement agencies have a special problem finding funds to fight hate crimes, and thus require federal assistance. But that evidence, at least on first glance, seems to indicate a lack of interest rather than a lack of resources on the local agencies' part. And a relative lack of interest in prosecuting hate crimes in particular may reflect a legitimate set of priorities. Some jurisdictions may not have a lot of hate crimes, for example; and the diversity of jurisdictions' needs is a reason to stick with federalism.

What's glaringly obvious here is the complete lack of regard for the specifics, as Andrew Sullivan so succinctly points out.

Obviously, there's couldn't be any correlation between Ponnuru's standing as one of the major right-wing theoreticians and the hammerlock the rabid anti-gay Christianists have on the far right. (You know -- the devout Christians like Donald Wildmon and James Dobson who think worrying about poverty and environmental destruction will divert resource from the Real Fight.) None whatsoever, I'm sure. If the present bill were just an amendment of the existing law that didn't include protections for gays, I'm sure the opposition would be just as vociferous.

Considering the rampant religious bigotry and racism coming from the right wing these days, it seems like Ponnuru is arguing that, "Hey, look, we have to soft-pedal the race and religious baiting -- that's really bad PR -- so we should concentrate on bashing gays. Again."