GOP: Obama must fail, no matter what.
Ideas vs bullies, racism and falsehoods
In an earlier post, I posited, that the GOP had essentially given up any role in the health care reform process, notwithstanding the fact that the vast majority of Americans want that process to continue. I suggested the bases for Republican political philosophy: cut taxes on wealthy, give government operations to private industry and make people afraid – and everything will be perfect, again. I called the GOP the party of “no-no”, objecting to everything, never proposing an alternative and hoping, always hoping that President Obama will fail. Of course, hoping that the president fails means hoping the country fails, too.
I was wrong in that I totally underestimated the ability of the rabid right and their spokespersons in the media to combine racism, bully tactics and outright lies and fear tactics to prevent any rational attempts to explain administration proposals or even to allow discussion on the merits.
Projection and racism
Glenn Beck calls our president (yes, Mr. Beck, he is our president) a racist who hates white people, or at least “their” culture. The use of Mr. Beck’s name and “culture” in the same sentence makes me uneasy. Other blowhards, specifically Rush Limbaugh, compare the Obama administration to Nazi Germany of 64 years ago. Some followers of the Michael Savages, the Glenn Becks and the Ditto-heads, arrive at gatherings to display fake images of President Obama garbed in tribal costumes or appearing before a crowd from 1936, all with cheers of “Heil Hitler”. Some carry signs associating President Obama with the Nazi SS.
There are two alternatives at work. First, the concept of “psychological projection” is applicable. This is a term explaining an often unconscious transfer of suppressed thoughts to another. Thus, by asserting beyond any rational political hyperbole that Barack Obama is a Nazi or racist, Messrs. Savage, Beck, et al, are projecting their own racism. The second alternative, and one that I feel more likely, is that the folks on Fox News simply have no compass at all; anything goes in the pursuit of ratings. Anything goes in the pursuit of gullible sycophantic followers.
Bullies refuse discussions, have no meaningful program
We have all seen images of angry mobs at “Town Hall” meetings. The experiences in Tampa were typical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX4F_cb9AXk
and
The “protesters” are not helpful. It is ironic they use their first amendment speech to disrupt the same rights of other Americans. They have changed the course of events, and not in a good way. Who are they?
Some, I am certain, are thoughtful people who sincerely want straight information about health care reform possibilities and proposals. Then there are the people who followed Glenn Beck’s urging them to attend the meeting and to “remind the Congresswoman that [they] work for us.” You can hear the chant on the recording. Third, are those people who have listened to and believe all of some part of the falsehoods about healthcare reform. I will suggest some of the most outrageous and absurd myths that are around, including Sarah Palin’s warning that “Obama death panels” would decide if a person was to be killed!
By far, however, the protesters are following a script prepared by the Republicans. See, for example, the directions from Connecticut Republicans explaining how to shout down speakers, pack the meetings and disrupt any attempts by Democrat elected officials. As a meeting in Texas demonstrates, the disrupters have it down pat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEH9M0Wgvzc
I, in particular, was fascinated by the specific questions prepared by the GOP Connecticut group.
YOU have voted for a socialist agenda. Please explain why you believe a soeialist [sic] approach to governing, as opposed to a free market approach is optimum? Do you believe that people would prefer their govemment [sic] to control their inconle [sic], their health care, their retirement, their investments, their children’s education, their [sic] chence [sic] of cars, what they eat and drink, etc.?
Falsehoods, ignorance and just plain silliness
Republicans, in lieu of suggesting any meaningful ideas to reform our national health care delivery system, have tried to frighten people. After all, the Bush-Cheney administration was a master of using fear; the Iraqi invasion was predicated on statements by Messrs. Bush and Cheney that Saddam had “weapons of mass destruction”, that he was in league with al Qaeda, that he was purchasing nuclear material from Niger and that Iraq was involved in the attack on the World Trade Center. All of these assertions are now known to be untrue and were cynically used to enflame the American public.
The statement of Sarah Palin on Facebook is typical.
The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. 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.
“Obama ‘death panel’?” I do not question Ms Palin’s failure to read the proposals; she has demonstrated difficulty in such analysis, but “death panels”? Where did that come from? Certainly not from the Bill passed by the House of Representatives, not from any statement by the president or his aides and not from any reform proposed by anyone. As to the rationing of care by refusing to pay the bill, isn’t this exactly the present practice by the insurance industry?
Other myths and falsehoods abound, notwithstanding their fear mongering approach has been refuted by non-partisan organizations. Just a few examples should suffice:
Town hall meetings are, according to GOP leader John Boehner, honest displays of the concerns of the average citizen. Republicans and well-funded special interest groups are sending far-right extremists to local town halls to stop any meaningful discussion of Health Insurance Reform. Some of these mob scenes have turned especially ugly — including the hanging of Members of Congress in effigy and use of Nazi SS symbols.
Representative Boehner is also responsible for this whopper: the House bill “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.” FactCheck.org pointed out that the bill never requires anyone to discuss end-of-life care. Rather, the bill ensures medical professionals who do offer this type of counseling at the patient’s request are reimbursed for their time, just as they would be for other types of counseling or medical services. Actually this is the same policy that has been in effect for decades – people are encouraged to create a living will to declare personal wishes – except that doctors would be able to bill for such discussions.
Then there’s Representative Steven King stating
“Taxpaying families, already weighed down by bailouts and massive spending bills, cannot afford to pay for health insurance for millions of illegal aliens. Hard and smart working Iowans should not be forced to pay for illegal aliens to obtain health benefits under any health care reform plan.
“It is wrong to reward law breakers. The American people are speaking loud and clear and saying, ‘No health care for illegal aliens.’”
H.R. 3200 includes a provision that specifically says that there will be no federal funds spent to cover illegal immigrants: “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.” Incidentally, illegal immigrants aren’t eligible for federal health programs under current law, except for emergency care.
Finally, there is this classic: Page 992 of the health care bill will “establish school-based ‘health’ clinics. Your children will be indoctrinated and your grandchildren may be aborted!” This is pure made-up stuff; there is nothing on Page 992 or elsewhere in the House bill that promises payment for abortion, the health clinic are the same facilities in most schools today. Can anyone truly believe a school is a place to perform an abortion? Before or after recess?
A recent Texas Town Hall meeting with Representative Gene Green is telling. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands. Those people who do not know that Medicare is government-run are operating on a different frequency; they just either hate Mr. Obama –just as they did Bill Clinton- or they are being manipulated by mean and nasty folks. In any event, they do not choose to listen.
It is a damn shame that efforts by our elected representative to reach out to the voters, to learn as well as inform, are thwarted by mobs. The rights of free speech and assembly are there to increase public dialogue and conversations on the issues.
What a shame the Right has forgotten.
