Saturday, July 15, 2023

I Don't Think Rep Anna Luna Understood the Correct Point She Was Making. She Backed Herself Into the Wrong Argument.

House Democrat LOSES IT On Matt Gaetz During Floor Speech: ‘You Are Exhausting!’ (msn.com)

Rep Anna Luna (R, Fla) doesn't appear in this video until 4:36.  By that point, Steven Horsford had complained about Matt Gaetz's amendment, Gaetz demanded a point of order, because Horsford addressed him directly, which is not permitted, instead of addressing the Chair, and Gaetz then described Horsford's argument as childish, which is an ad hominem criticism, which is also not permitted.  (Gaetz is selective about which impermissible kinds of interactions he objects to.)  Then, Gaetz yielded to Luna.

Luna, like Gaetz, is very opposed to Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion.  Even more than that, they're extremely opposed to initiatives that promote DEI.  To illustrate her point about how unnecessary, and ridiculous, DEI initiatives are, Luna offered a sort of personal example.  

She began generally by pointing out that everyone of whatever race or ethnicity bleeds the same (color).  Boy, was she right about that.  And to bring her point home, she mentioned her husband (Luna is Caucasian, and she didn't say her husband wasn't also Caucasian) who was stationed in the middle east, got wounded, and most certainly didn't concern himself with the race or ethnicity of who evacuated him to safety, evaluation, and treatment.  And that's great, that he didn't have to worry about the race or ethnicity of the people who saved him.

If Luna's husband is in fact Caucasian, it might not have occurred to her that not everyone can make the same assumption about being evacuated that her husband could.  The sense of camaraderie might depend on more than the uniform.

Luna's husband, and Luna, can confidently assume, for example, that if they have a tail light out, and the police notice it, the problem will be brought to their attention.  It's possible they'll get a warning, and unlikely they'll get a citation.  Luna might not realize that some people will get assassinated by police over something like that.  And whether they do or they don't will depend on something a lot more superficial, and immediately obvious, than the color of their blood.

I think Rep Luna makes a good and important point: we're all in this together.  But if she gets too glib and careless about it, and forgets how many people don't look at it that way, then she's really just encouraging antisocial behavior.

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