Since when did “conservative” become synonymous with thug? What kind of “conservatives” form unruly mobs and shut down town hall meetings (such as we’ve seen happening all week), denying their fellow citizens the free exercise of free speech and access to their elected officials? Since when do nationally recognized “conservative” political figures engage in speech so bombastic that the rhetoric of the most extreme lunatic fringe pales in comparison? The answer to these questions, evidently, is since America elected an African-American president. Draw your own conclusions.
Fair and balanced has disappeared from the airwaves. So, we’re bringing fair and balanced to our conversations here at Perkerson Park. Today’s topic—health care reform.
Sarah Palin
“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” (Excerpt from Sarah Palin’s Facebook page on August 6, 2009. The full text of her remarks concerning proposed health care legislation is available at the Facebook link.)
Prentice
“The America I know and love is not one in which my elderly mother or my son will have to stand in front of a health insurance company’s ‘death panel’ so that company cost-cutters can decide, based on an objective financial calculation to determine what makes more money for the insurance company, whether to continue or terminate my loved one’s life. I do not want people I love to suffer and die because some morally bankrupt political figures are willing to sell their souls, tell any lie, turn their heads from the torments of those withering in pain, and allow countless men, women and children to die from health care neglect in order to curry the favor of big money interests who promise them political power and financial support. There is, I believe, a special place in hell for such people.”
Fair and balanced. You decide, then call your elected representatives.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Well said! This is going up on my FB page!
Just need some clarity. Do you consider all who disagree with and voice their concerns about health care reform to be racist or just those that have unified their voices into an “unruly mob”?
Thanks for your question, RobinF. Certainly, I do not consider all who oppose health care reform legislation to be racist. I don’t even consider all of those who unify their voices into an “unruly mob” to be racist—thugs, but not necessarily racists. Racism and health care, for the most part, have little to do with one another. However, I think we are all well aware that there is a vocal segment of the public that is driven by race hatred. This is proven to me every day by the emails I receive expressing hatred of our President because of his ethnicity—emails that liberally use racial slurs and innuendo in support of an illegitimate political agenda. Those who are so driven will oppose every proposal offered by President Obama simply because he supports it. They are obstructionist because of the President’s race. As the article says, drawn your own conclusions with respect to those who engage in bullying tactics and bombastic rhetoric.
The point of my article was twofold:
(1) To call attention to the fact that over the past several days numerous town hall meetings around the country have been hijacked by loud, vulgar and threatening crowds of people who would like us to believe that they are simply citizens concerned about health care reform. These meetings were, for the most part, organized by local civic organizations for the purpose of allowing their membership and members of the general public to hear from their elected representatives about the various health care reform proposals under consideration in Congress and to ask questions about such legislation. Because the organizers, elected officials and the audience who came to hear their representatives were all drowned out by crowds of shouting agitators, and in some cases subjected to threats of physical violence, the meetings were, of necessity, stopped. As as result of some of these “takeovers,” law enforcement officers had to intervene to restore order and protect public safety. Those who came to hear their representatives and voice their own concerns in a civil and productive way were denied all opportunity to do so.
Bad behavior, Robin, is bad behavior. It isn’t an expression of conservatism, it’s just bad behavior. It’s rude, it’s offensive, it can be dangerous in a public forum, and it does nothing to advance the debate about health care reform. It is the behavior of spoiled children and bullies. Conservatism doesn’t regard such behavior as admirable or virtuous, and our mothers certainly would not approve of it!
(2) To call attention to the disingenuous and bombastic rhetoric to which some public figures have dishonestly turned in order to win people over to their side in the current debate. More, particularly, the article focuses on recent statements of Sarah Palin in which she refers to a “death panel”, representing that “death panels” will be created by the President upon passage of the proposed legislation. The legislation, of course, creates no such thing, and you and I have enough sense to know that. On the other hand, there is more than a small number of impressionable people who do not know that.
Mrs. Palin, and others, use such scary language for the express purpose of frightening those impressionable people, causing them to believe something that a reasonable person knows isn’t true.
As I’m sure you know, I strongly support health care reform. Further, I strongly support HR 3200. I have little patience or respect for those who, through selfishness and greed, oppose health care reform solely because they are unwilling to contribute anything of their resources to the health care needs of their fellow citizens. On the other hand, I recognize that there are numerous criticisms which may be legitimately made to any particular bill. We can debate those issues—unless, of course, we are shouted down and driven away from the debate by those unruly mobs of fake conservatives and loudmouth agitators.
As you I’m sure understood, my issue with your article was why you felt it necessary to even bring race into the matter. I know I and others I have spoken with are just so tired of being labeled a racist every time we speak out against President Obama’s policies or agenda. I had no problem with the rest of your article. You are entitled to your opinion, as are we all. Yes, we all need to know more about the proposal and ask and have questions answered. A lot of people are fearful, not so much about what is being said or not said, but by the seemingly push to hurry the reform to be pressed through. The shouts of “Read the Bill” are trying to say just that. Slow down. We all agree our health care system needs to be fixed. The push should be to get it right not just get it done quickly.
I fully appreciate that many people are fearful. They are fearful, I think, mainly because of the efforts of the frightmongers to disseminate false and frightening information about the proposed bill. One of those scare tactics has been to suggest that legislators have not read the bill. In point of fact, most lawmakers haven’t read any of the bills upon which they vote.
Obviously, it would require thousands of man hours to read the thousands of pages of the bills presented in the House of Representatives. To handle this situation representatives employ office staff whose job it is to read all of the bills. Staffers read them, then provide the representative with a condensed report—an executive summary, if you will. It is the only way that the job can be done.
The urgency felt by so many congressmen during the last session arose from their sense that if the bill was not voted on quickly, organized groups opposing the bill would have time to apply political pressure to defeat the bill. This is exactly what the “tea-baggers” have been attempting to do through a campaign of disinformation.
The sad fact is that most citizens do not have the time required to read enormous bills such as HR 3200. Neither do they have staff people to read the legislation for them. They must form an opinion and belief about the legislation from what they hear about it. Consequently, many of them believe the disinformation spread by the teabaggers.
I have read the bill. Every word of it (HR 3200). All 1000+ pages. None of the frightening things said about that bill are true. No death panel, no rationed care, no enslavement of doctors, government bureaucrats are not poised to pull the plug on grandma just to save a few bucks. All of those things are make believe. They are made up just to frighten folks, and sadly they often do just that.
“Read The Bill!” – “Read The Bill” – “Read The Bill”……is a chant I hear over and over again with, indeed, sad amusement. When in our recent history have organized groups of people urged us to “Read The Bill”? Certainly not when our congressmen and congresswomen voted overwhelmingly to fund GWB’s illegal invasion of Iraq did we urge caution. Certainly not when we allowed our congressional leaders to authorize the establishment of the “suspected terrorist” hell-hole we call Gitmo did we bother to raise our voices. We did not cry out “foul” when leading scientist were denied the benefit of spending federal monies to research with stem cells. I have heard little, if any, public protest for the billions of dollars handed over to private contractors (i.e. Blackwater,Boeing etc.) to provide less than adequate services to the men and women who proudly wear the uniform of our U.S. military serving in foreign fields of conflict. Members of the military are given stupid official rules of behavior when confronted with questions of the sexuality of our brave soldiers. By all means let us look the other way, shut our mouths and certainly “DON’T ASK – DON’T TELL”. Why have we not shouted in all of these instances, and the many other instances, when the civil and human rights of our peoples have been (and are being) denied.
My truth is that until we respectfully recognize the rights of even the least of those who share this earth with us we need not seek additional ways to puff ourselves up with foolish political ploys. I find it hard to chant “Read The Bill” when I want to cry for the countless millions disenfranchised by a people that chooses to give their reverance to gold, silver and treasures that bear no real worth. I cry, I cry; longing for the day when words including “honorable justice”, “equal” and “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” no longer rings hollow upon our ears.