"However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue. These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted "Just say no!" drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion.
These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades."
Un-American huh? It may be that here and there things got quite, uh, uncivilized, but when it comes to drowning out opposing views I don't think the left has to teach us anything. Moreover, as regular reader and commenter Scott points out (linking to a Rasmussen Report), public support for Obama's health care reform plan has fallen to a new low as just 42% of U.S. voters now favor it. This is down five points from two weeks ago and eight points from six weeks ago. Also according to Rasmussen, 44% of voters strongly oppose the health care reform effort versus 26% who strongly favor it. This is not about isolated resistance. This is a nationwide movement, and as such it deserves at least to be listened at. To label as un-american the behaviour of tens of millions of citizens, rightly concerned that their forced inclusion in a governmental health care insurance scheme will be worse for them than their current employer-provided insurance, as flawed as it may be, is pure demagogy and utterly typical of the left. I know, because I am a European and I know these tactics because not only did I grew up on a diet of them, but also because they still play a significant role in my life. Let us be clear about this: by un-american dissenters Pelosi does not only mean the 'Just say no' shouting crowd in Texas. She means EVERYBODY who asks critical questions. As per usual, Dennis Prager nails it:
"...The worst part of the liberal mantra, "Dissent is Patriotic," however, is not that is meaningless. It is that it is apparently meant solely to defend liberal and left dissent. Dissent against the right is inherently patriotic.
Dissent against the left is another matter. To Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and to the New York Times Paul Krugman and every other left-wing commentator I have read on the issue, those who dissent against the Obama/Democratic Party health care plan are not only not patriotic; they are Nazis, mobs, white racists (according to Krugman's non-sequitur thesis) and are always organized. They are activists sent by health insurance companies, the Republican Party, or by some other nefarious right-wing organization...
...
... A local physician [in Georgia's 13th Congressional District this past weekend - MFBB], Dr. Brian Hill, a urologist, went to a town hall meeting organized by Democratic Congressman David Scott. When Dr. Hill asked in a calm voice why the Congressman would support a government health plan in light of the failing government health plan in Massachusetts, Rep. Scott began yelling at him about people from outside the district coming to "hijack this event" and that those at his town hall meeting raising the health care issue should have had "the decency" to call the congressman's office to set up a meeting to discuss the issue and not take over the town hall meeting. As reported by WXIA-TV News, the local NBC affiliate, however, Dr. Hill does live and vote in the congressman's district, had called the congressman's office numerous times and got no response, and is not a Republican.
But such people as Dr. Richman in California and Dr. Hill in Georgia don't exist in the Democratic Party's or in Paul Krugman's mind. Like most of the left since Marx, the American left today has created an image of the world to which reality is subservient. Left-wing theories define reality, not vice versa. And in that closed world, left-wing dissent is patriotic, while dissent against the left is fascistic at worst, or paid for by the greedy at best..."
You bet.
MFBB.
No comments:
Post a Comment