I’ve listened to and read some of the rhetoric that’s been pushed out by opponents of the healthcare reform program and I become more disgusted each day.
And I’m not an American.
I read posts on Twitter, I watch video clips and I read news reports that are deliberately highly personal attacks on your President. And two things happen:
- My respect for him goes up
- I truly fear for what would happen if he were to lose the next election. Not just to America, but to the rest of the world.
As Barney Frank said in a Town Hall meeting in Boston recently: the fact that this vicious, ignorant and mindless crap can be shouted out publicly with complete impunity is a tribute to the First Amendment.
In George W Bush’s day there was opposition to his policies and decisions. A lot of it strong.
But it never descended to the level of mindless, ignorant, personally insulting hysterical rants that have become common place from the right wingers over the past 7 months.
If Obama were to lose the next election and the neo-cons took over, America would enter a very dark period. It would lose what moral leadership it had left and the result would be to further de-stabilise an already unstable world.
One thing, though, is crystal clear:
The more hysterical the protests against healthcare reform become the more clear it is that serious reform is needed.
Because only when people see their gravy train being derailed do they become this rabid and defensive.
And, by the way, for those who have already compared Obama to Hitler and the health care reform program to a Nazi program, this article may be helpful.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
“But it never descended to the level of mindless, ignorant, personally insulting hysterical rants that have become common place from the right wingers over the past 7 months.”
Really? I suspect you weren’t paying attention.
From one search: http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/20702610.aspx
“When Bush visited Portland, Ore., for a fundraiser, protesters stalked his motorcade, assailed his limousine and stoned a car containing his advisers. Chanting “Bush is a terrorist!”, the demonstrators bullied passers-by, including gay softball players and a wheelchair-bound grandfather with multiple sclerosis.
One protester even brandished a sign that seemed to advocate Bush’s assassination. The man held a large photo of Bush that had been doctored to show a gun barrel pressed against his temple.
“BUSH: WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE,” read the placard, which had an X over the word “ALIVE.”
Another poster showed Bush’s face with the words: “F— YOU, MOTHERF—ER!”
A third sign urged motorists to “HONK IF YOU HATE BUSH.” A fourth declared: “CHRISTIAN FASCISM,” with a swastika in place of the letter S in each word.”
There’stin foil hatters on bot sides of the political divide in the USA.
On health care reform there is a lot going on and a lot of very deep thinking people are critical of what Obama is trying to do and how he is doing it. He was hoping to get his bill through quickly and without anyone reading it, unfortunately he was wrong and he starting tolose the debate.
Listen to these podcasts from Cato:
http://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/podcast-archive.php
http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/dailypodcast/michaelfcannon_coopsandthehealthcaredebate_20090818.mp3
http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/dailypodcast/sallypipes_puncturingmythsofamericanhealthcare_20090803.mp3
You’re right, although it wasn’t so much that I wasn’t paying attention as that I’d forgotten those incidents.
I stand corrected
WRT the healthcare debate I absolutely admit that I’m not close enough to it to know the full facts, but I do instinctively support the concept of a universal health care system and I do believe there are a lot of vested interests who are desperately anxious to avoid losing out financially in whatever system emerges
Cheers,
Martin.