Mark Steyn has an op-ed over at Investors Business Daily that asks the question; why are we having a debate about birth control when we have much bigger problems (try runaway debt growth) than whether people should be paying for their own birth control or whether their employers should be made to pay for it for them?
The received wisdom among media cynics is that Obama has engaged in an ingenious bit of misdirection by seizing on a pop-culture caricature of Republicans and inviting them to live up to it: Those uptight squares with the hang-ups about fornication have decided to force you to lead the same cheerless sex lives as them.
I notice that in their coverage NPR and the evening news shows generally refer to the controversy as being about "contraception," discreetly avoiding mention of sterilization and pharmacological abortion, as if the GOP have finally jumped the shark in order to prevent you jumping anything at all.
It may well be that the Democrats succeed in establishing this narrative. But anyone who falls for it is a sap. In fact, these two issues — the Obama condoms-for-clunkers giveaway and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 900% by 2075 — are not unconnected.
Misdirection is exactly what it is and if you buy the nonsense that the Republicans are trying to ban birth control then yes, you are a sap. As Steyn points out, Glenn Reynolds has distilled the misdirection technique down perfectly:
"It's as if we passed a law requiring mosques to sell bacon and then, when people objected, responded by saying 'What's wrong with bacon? You're trying to ban bacon!!!!'"
Indeed, as the man himself would say. Read the whole thing (both).
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