The Hawley-Bridges Exchange Was Not Constructive
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Question of the Week
Should Joe Biden run for reelection? If not, who would you choose to replace him on the Democratic ticket? (If you’re a Republican, assume the Democrat will definitely win the election.)
Send responses to conor@theatlantic.com.
Conversations of Note
When Semantics Dominate Civics
Every so often, C-SPAN captures the shortcomings of American civic discourse particularly clearly. On Tuesday, during a televised Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on abortion access and the law, Senator Josh Hawley, a social conservative from Missouri, sparred with the UC Berkeley law professor Khiara M. Bridges, who studies race, class, and reproductive rights. If you follow left-of-center media, you may have heard about the exchange via headlines like these:
HuffPost: “Professor Schools Sen. Josh Hawley for His Transphobic Questions in Abortion Hearing”
Above the Law: “You *Have* to Watch This Law Professor SHUT DOWN Senator Josh Hawley”
New York magazine: “Josh Hawley Called Out as Transphobic in Senate Hearing”
Jezebel: “Berkeley Law Professor Eviscerates Sen. Josh Hawley at Post-Roe Hearing”
Inside a “blue” bubble, it would be easy to assume that Senator Hawley had had a bad day. Yet Hawley, for his part, did his utmost to make sure that same exchange reached as many people as possible. He on the Fox News Channel in prime time to discuss the viral moment, amplified the efforts of numerous right-leaning media figures to publicize it, and to his 894,000,” as put it.
