As I began my evening of news trolling (yet another sign of old age creeping in) I was impressed and heartened by a news story on ABC. In it, Charles Gibson attempts to debunk the myth that Health Care Reform will result in “Death Panels” and that the government will come and kill grandma. It continued a story that I saw earlier on Good Morning America (this is why I watch ABC in the mornings, not MSNBC).
For starters, the so-called “Death Panel” is simply a provision that allows you, the patient, to discuss end-of-life issues with your doctor. The conversation is initiated by you, and the decisions are made by you. Whether you want to die at home in peace, or have the hospital hook you up, sit you in a corner and decorate you for Christmas, it’s totally your decision. This is the link to the GMA video. Watch it and make your own judgments.
Now of course this isn’t going to do anything to satisfy the ignorant masses on the right. Their vitriol goes way beyond health care, and I don’t have to explain where it’s really coming from. However, it always kind of frustrates me when our MSM allows lies like “euthanasia”, “rationing”, and “government decisions” to run rampant without even an attempt at fact-checking. The problem is that truth just isn’t a “sexy” enough story. The media can spend endless weeks speculating on what killed Michael Jackson, but can’t be bother to debunk the lies coming from right-wing extremist like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. They’ll spend 5 days fact-checking President Obama when he says C-A-T spells cat, yet can’t spend 5 minutes fact-checking Silly Sarah’s claim of “Obama Death Panels”. Mark Twain once said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world, while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” It doesn’t help when the MSM hides the shoes.
At a June 22 town-hall style event, Representative Tim Bishop (D – NY) had to be escorted out of his own meeting in the face of angry sign carrying mobs who oppose his positions on health care, energy, and the bailout of the auto industry.
Representative Allen Boyd (D – FL) was greeted by about 100 angry sign carrying protesters when he attended a community college small business forum in
Panama City in late June.
Last week, teabaggers claimed they were denied the chance to ask questions at a town-hall event in Danville, VA run by Representative Thomas Perriello (D – VA), and escorted off the property when attempted to hold up signs.
And moderate Republican Representative Mike Castle (R – DE) hit a wall of right wingnuttery at a meeting which was a part of his health-care listening tour. This is the meeting that was ultimately disrupted by a “Birther” asking why he hasn’t pursued the question of Obama’s birth certificate, ending with the audience reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
This, folks, is “teabagging” in action, right-wingnuttery in an all out attack against health-care reform (not to mention any other form of common sense). With congress about to take its August recess with no vote on health-care legislation, the “teabaggers”, “birthers”, “dittoheads”, and other right-wing groups have launched a blitz of “grass-roots” opposition designed to disrupt, rattle, and shout down any attempt to inform the public about Health Care Reform.
Of course, as with the original “teabagging” protests, if you look at the grass close enough, you’ll see its roots lie in the usual political self interests groups. In this case, Americans for Prosperity, and Freedomworks.
According to thinkprogress.org, a memo leaked by one of the groups volunteers, Bob MacGuffie, outlines specific steps that are designed to disrupt pro health care town-hall meetings, and stifle any intelligent debate. Some particulars from the memo…
– Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.”
– Be Disruptive Early And Often: “You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.”
–Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate: “The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.”
It gets worse. Patients United, a front group for Americans for Prosperity, is bussing people to meetings all over the country to protest at Democratic town-halls. NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions (R – TX) has even endorsed this strategy. Telling Politico…
“The days of you having a town hall meeting where maybe 15 or 20 of your friends show up — they’re over. You’ve now got real people who are showing up — and that’s going to be a factor.”
So it would appear that the gauntlet has been thrown down and the battle lines have been drawn. If we’ve learned anything at all from the 2000 elections (which began the 8 year long nightmare of Cheney/Bush), we know that the politics of disruption and destruction are a fine art to the right-wing. This means that for the left, it is time for us to put our greater numbers to use.
–If there is a town-hall meeting in your area, ATTEND IT. The wingnuts are hoping for the illusion of greater numbers to “rattle” speakers. We need to show them that ours are not only “bigger”, but we also know how to use them.
–If righties start shouting, SHOUT LOUDER! Along with numbers, the wingnuts are also hoping to intimidate everyone else. After all, when you’re small, you have to act big and bad in order to get attention. Ever notice how bullies in the schoolyard back down when confronted? Same principle here. These people are hoping to bully the country into their point of view. If we send a message to the Republicans and their insurance benefactors that we’re willing to stand up to them, they’ll back down easily enough.
–Contact your congressperson. By snail-mail, by e-mail, by phone (works best). Let you congressperson know that you are for REAL Health Care Reform (WITH the Public Option). If your congressperson is for reform, thank them and tell them to keep fighting for you. If your congressperson is a Republican or Blue Dog Democrat opposing reform, confront them. Tell them your story. Make them explain to you why they are against something that the majority of the country wants, why millions of Americans should go bankrupt, or die, for lack of affordable health care while they continue to take big bucks from the insurance industry and lobbyists. Most of all, remind them that you voted them into office, and you can just as easily vote them out.
These are our marching orders, people. The right-wing is willing to pull out all the stops to “make Obama fail”. We cannot allow that to happen. On this issue there is too much at stake to leave it up to the politicians and media to do all the heavy lifting. This time it’s on us. We need to make a stand against the fear and intimidation which is the trademark of the radical right wing (because it’s all they have). If we want real reform, we’re going to have to man up (or woman up) and fight for it ourselves.
