Colorado congressional candidate and sitting State Rep. Richard Holtorf ® received a tough grilling this week at the hands of local 9News anchor Kyle Clark over his apparent hypocrisy when it comes to abortion rights.

Holtorf made headlines back in January when he defended paying for his girlfriend’s abortion, despite being an adamant pro-life lawmaker and abortion critic. “Anti-abortion GOP lawmaker praises the impact of the abortion he paid for,” read the headline of a local report by Clark from the beginning of the year.

To his credit, Holtorf sat down with Clark to discuss the issue.

  • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Embarassing someone like this is how you convince anyone listening who hasn’t made up their minds. They’re the politically uninformed. They vote based on vibes, and “oooh Republican got owned” is a vibe.

    Don’t get me wrong, I detest these people and frequently ridicule them. But if well reasoned holistic arguments could convince them, they’d already be convinced.

    Even more importantly, Democrats who already know where they stand but need more “energy” to convince them to get off their asses and vote will resonate with this. They need someone fiery. Dark Brandon is very successful with them.

    • asteriskeverything@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Thank you for the discussion and self reflection your responses caused! I do mean this genuinely.

      I think maybe I’m not expressing clearly that I’m not mad he ridiculed and embarrassed him. I guess I just wanted an “and then”; don’t just burn them, bury and desecrate the body. Show depth of just how awful and hypocritical they are. But maybe that was clear and people still disagree! Idk so just throwing out that clarification one more time to quell the anxiety beast.

      In hindsight I was definitely looking at this emotionally and reacting as such. I did not read the article as a transcript of an interview in mind, which I really should have. I do still believe he let him get away with a lot though.

      Paying for an abortion then immediately saying that the abortion wasn’t your choice isn’t just hypocrisy, it is a nice little blanket that he can wrap around himself that people might not take beyond face value of the words. But dude voted with his dollar. Call him out on THAT.

      They get away with SO MUCH and I’m sick of seeing only one Itty bitty detailed being called out in the press AND social media.

      Sorry this isn’t at you just another passionate tangent. Totally see your point, I’m also never gonna be able to believe it is pointless to talk about because I started as someone who didn’t even know which is conservative and liberal. Like the words had no context. But reading thoughtful posts and discussions did teach/show me a lot to think about. Stuff like this where we aren’t on the same page but at least are on the same chapter in the same book.

      Someone is ALWAYS listening.

      However I think I WAS wrong with misplaced judgement and this wasn’t the type of media where my criticism would have made a difference and maybe not even be as helpful as is. I don’t wanna double down, when I watched and read the article the next day it was a lot harder to hold onto my initial take and I shouldn’t be trying to. So yeah definitely eating my hat a little. And thank you again!

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I can get behind an “and then”. Thanks for discussing in good faith, it’s a rare thing nowadays.