{"id":777,"date":"2003-10-22T11:04:34","date_gmt":"2003-10-22T16:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/777.html"},"modified":"2003-10-22T11:04:34","modified_gmt":"2003-10-22T16:04:34","slug":"the-new-republics-bizarre-online-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-new-republics-bizarre-online-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Republic’s bizarre online debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, The New Republic started one of those online debates I like so much. In these forums, one expert on a given topic writes an opening statement explaining why he or she believes their position on a controversy is right. Then the other side goes. It takes a few days and the exchanges are usually pretty interesting. (It’s an idea Slate.com developed<\/a> a few years ago, but they don’t do it much anymore. I’m not sure why.)<\/p>\n

I enjoy the format because it’s the opposite of TV “talk”-shows. Instead of soundbites, filibusters, shouts, and interruptions, informed people engage in a meaningful dialogue in an online debate. There’s no pressure to squeeze in your amusing quip before the commercial break, or before Bill O’Reilly decides to turn off your microphone.<\/p>\n

As much as I usually enjoy these online debates, they’re a lot more interesting when those debating actually disagree<\/i> with one another. Unfortunately, this week’s New Republic debate seems to have missed this point entirely.<\/p>\n

The magazine chose Jeffrey Rosen<\/a>, the legal affairs editor at TNR, and Roger Severino<\/a>, a lawyer for Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, to debate the Supreme Court case<\/a> on “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n

What’s wrong with that? They both agree that the religious phrase in the Pledge is perfectly constitutional.<\/p>\n

Rosen believes “under God” inclusion in the Pledge is consistent with the principle of government neutrality on religion, arguing that the phrase doesn’t “represent any kind of state support for religion because the Pledge is a patriotic rather than a religious exercise.” Rosen also argues that taxpayer funding of religious education and “faith-based” enterprises is perfectly permissible under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

Rosen, believe it or not, was picked to be the “pro” separation of church and state writer in this debate.
\n
\nOn the other side, Severino argues that our “rights and liberties” derive from God, and as such, we should encourage government promotion of religion — Jefferson and Madison be damned — in order to “clothe an otherwise naked public square.”<\/p>\n

Both Rosen and Severino are, from my perspective, completely wrong. One is hostile to church-state separation, and the other is really<\/i> hostile to church-state separation.<\/p>\n

Why in the world would The New Republic choose these two for this debate?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, The New Republic started one of those online debates I like so much. In these forums, one expert on a given topic writes an opening statement explaining why he or she believes their position on a controversy is right. Then the other side goes. It takes a few days and the exchanges are usually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}