. >> let me ask you dr. dysonmagine what would happen if a democrat candidate's spouse said something similar. do you see anyone coming forward, though, and asking michele bachmann to disavow her husband's remarks? >> that's a great point, reverend sharpton, i have seen no one coming forward to say this is wrong, to call gay, lesbian, transgender people barbarians is ludicrous and a touch of barbarism. so say they must be altered in their orientation is to really foresake the ultimate commitment to counseling truth, which is to suggest that you take the patient as she or he is. you try to help them towards a more healthy role, but you don't try to change who they are. you try to help them able to become the best people they can become. but to have a preordained belief that homosexuality itself is a sin, dr. bachmann talked about the sinful nature of homosexuality, really mitigates against the kind of therapeutic redemption that would be edifying. i think if a democrat had said this, if something progressive had sa

dr. michael eric dyson.tional correspondent for the washington post and finally matt lewis, senior contributor for the daily caller. first question, instead of drinking the kool-aid, are republicans drinking tea on the debt crisis? house leaders are wasting time with tea parties cut, cap and balance bill even though it has no chance of passing the senate or getting signed by president obama. dana? the clock is ticking toward the default. are the republicans fitting while rome is burning here? >> well yb yes, reverend they are. but sometimes a little bit of fiddling is necessary here. the republicans, particularly the house republicans, really need a way out of this corner they have backed themselves into. what's happening tomorrow in this debate, yes, everybody knows nothing will come of it. but it could be a catharsis. it could be a way for the house republicans to say, we've got our marker in the ground. this is what we are trying to do. we couldn't get it done. all right, let's sneak in the deal that's be

there is no realtime off in that job. >> now, dr. dyson, some said this is sexist.t they are doing this because she a s a woman. do you think that is legitimate? >> initially i must confess, i felt that context within these charges were brought up were for political advantage. karl rove, tim pawlenty and the like. on the other hand i think there are legitimate concerns and one must be open but them to suggest that yes, if these headaches indeed prove o to be a problem, then there are ways which you can reassure ourselves and her doctors can reassure us that you know, congresswoman bachmann can do her job and she would be able to carry forward. so the legitimate sphere on the one hand but i think a lot has been spun in a patriarchal and sexist fashion. >> josh, you are the conservative here. is this sexist or or legitimate? >> i'm not prone to charges of sexism pu but the initial caller daily story even did make me think it had the overtone of the delicate female who can't handle herself. she has had five children, fostered over a dozen more. she is on the national s

. >> dr. dyson good or just straight out hypocritical some. >> i'm with you reverend al. it seems to be pretty hypocritical because one person's pork is another person's gain. if you are talking about infrastructure spending being good because it is targeted, specific, it andibles the communities and i'm sympathetic to those congressman because have you high rates of poverty and investment and the like, the reality is so many communities where this same problem occurs. yet those communities are written off as addicted to the public dough. this ends up being welfare for those who claim they are against welfare. this is end up being public assistance in the name of furthering the public good and others turn a blind eye and deaf ear to it. >> so much for the tea party. it smooems seems in some areas, the tea party wants a little sugar in the tea. in others they want us to have it unsweetened. let me ask you this question, sam. there's been articles, published reports lately, saying that some of the new

dr. michael eric dyson.lantoni and matt lewis, senior contributor for the daily caller. >>> can republicans say yes? our first question tonight, president said on friday, he doesn't know if the president -- i mean, if the republicans are capable of saying yes. that very question he raised after the republicans walked way from the budget talks. matt? >> one of the questions that the republican parties will have to ask itself is can they say yes to anything. where's the leadership, or alternatively, how seriously are you actually about debt and deficit reduction or do you simply want to as a campaign ploy going into the next election. >> gop lawmakers rejected every single democratic proposal. they even rejected the republican proposal from mitch mcconnell. michael is yes, a word not in the republican vocabulary and will the president address it tonight? >> iç think reverend sharpton that it seems they cannot say yes. no, no, no. the party of negativity. and on every deal put forth so far has been rejected by

that is the stage we are at with this text and i loved it because precisely as dr. dyson said as a competing narrative you can never fully understand any human being. we are all the product of competing narrative's including those about ourselves. when you start reading an autobiography we all know that we talk about ourselves differently than other people would talk about us. you are reading a biased text. i love frederick douglass. write the story. just saying. it is the failure of our critical faculty. it is our investment has african-american people, we are very protective of our heroes. but sometimes it is to the exclusion of wanting to accept them as men and women and here is the danger and what i like this book. too much -- precisely what melissa said is true about malcolm becoming a talisman. what we do when we mythologize figures like malcolm x and martin luther king is we scare people from thinking they could be leaders. we make it look like the magical mystical -- you have to be born into it and have to be imprisoned and someone has to anoint you and we make it

have a formulation of black nationalism that addresses some of the policing that goes on in what dr. dyson gave the fascist elements of secular black thinking. is it possible to have a black nationalism that addresses that policing and how this mr. marable -- or dr. marable's book, how does his portrayal of malcolm x help in that conversation of the policing of the boundaries of blackness and black nationalism and its potential as a framework for political advancement of black people in this country? >> okay. great. [applause] >> well, i think i wanted to go to the question that the woman asked who saw the people on the light rail and actually reminds us of the earlier question i think we didn't answer about this theme that can see out of the book. i'm not one to give people universal themes out of books 'cause i think that's the fun of reading it that you discover itself but i think i understand what do you mean about the question and also what i hear maybe a little bit of anxiety about malcolm. and i want to say a couple things. i'm very happy to say your children will realize that's why

>> well, i'm not sure exactly what my friend dr. dyson meant.derstand the challenges before us right now. as we talk about the debt ceiling, we know america's a country that like any business or small business needs a line of credit to be able to move forward on its agenda, to address its issues of today, but also to plan for its future. so indeed, the debt ceiling needs to be raised. but as we talk about raising the debt ceiling, we have to make sure we don't hurt the most vulnerable among us. many of the programs that are on the chopping block, whether you're talking about medicaid, medicare, social security, or other programs are very important to, again, the least of these in our society, those that will affect most traumatically communities of color and other communities throughout our country. we have to make sure we don't allow them to become the sacrificial lambs for a very narrow agenda that's not good for america as a whole. >> do you have any sense at all about how the president's handling of the debt talks is being viewed within the

and i think that that is the states that we are at now with this text, and i love it because as dr. dyson says the competing narrative, you can never fully understand any human being. we are also a product of narratives including about ourselves. when you started something called an autobiography we all know that we talk about ourselves a little bit differently than maybe how other people would talk about us, so you are reading a bayh yes text and i love frederick douglass but i'm sure if somebody else at mets writing the story of -- [laughter] so, it is the failure of our foot book tv critical faculty and investment to be honest about this as african-american people we are very protective of our heroes, very protective of them but sometimes it is to the exclusion of wanting to accept them as men and women and here is why i like the book to read. precisely what melissa said is true about menachem becoming, but we do when we mythologize figures like mao mix and martin luther is weak scare off people from thinking that they can be leaders. we make it look like it is a mystical to word that