"If the right is crazy, it is crazy like a Fox News presenter"
Bret Cahill
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/13/opinion/main5307094.shtml
"Spare a thought, and maybe even a dime, for Kenneth Gladney. In
August he and
other members of the right-wing St. Louis Tea Party arrived at a town-
hall
meeting organized by Missouri Democrat Russ Carnahan to lobby against
universal
healthcare. In the spirit of this fraught summer, a fight broke out,
ending in
six arrests.
"Who threw the first punch depends on whom you ask. But who got the
worst of it
was fairly clear. Gladney was taken to the emergency room with
injuries to his
knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face and ended up in a wheelchair. His
troubles
were just beginning. Recently laid off, this particular anti-health
reform
protester, it turned out, had no health insurance. Last heard, he was
still
accepting donations for his medical expenses.
"It's not difficult to ridicule the American right. Its peculiar blend
of
paranoia, mania, fantasy and misanthropy has been given full rein
these past few
months. Those who demanded in July to see Obama's birth certificate
(which does
exist) ended August invoking the British healthcare system's "death
panels"
(which do not). That most of their claims were verifiably false was of
little
consequence--to them at least. At one point they insisted that if
scientist
Stephen Hawking were British and subject to the National Health
Service, he
would be dead, even though Hawking is British, alive and grateful to
the NHS for
his care.
"So progressives could be forgiven for branding the right as stupid
and crazy.
But they would also be wrong. For if this is madness, there is great
method in
it. It is well organized and well funded. It has proven effective in
mobilizing
support, creating "controversy" where little exists and disrupting
and
disorienting whatever national conversation there is. If it is stupid,
then what
does it say about us, since time and again it manages to outmaneuver
the left?
Annoying, bizarre, incoherent, divisive, intolerant, small-minded,
misinformed,
ill informed and disinformed, certainly. But stupid and crazy--
anything but. It
takes considerable skill to convince people that something that is
clearly good
for them--like universal healthcare--is not. If the right is crazy, it
is crazy
like a Fox News presenter. Reducing a political strategy or belief to
a
psychological disorder to dismiss and ridicule its proponents may be
comforting.
But it also abandons any hope of defeating it or stymieing its
influence beyond
therapy.
"There are three important points to acknowledge about people like
Gladney.
First, they are not new. The cold war in general and McCarthyism in
particular
was built on lies, misinformation, obsession and guilt by the most
tenuous of
associations ..... "
I disagree.
The more Repugliars distract and lie, the more seats they'll lose.
Time is not on their side.
Bret Cahill
Shrikeback
> A rightard was gittin' pushed too far . . .
Union thugs beat him and called him the n-word, for
Allah's sake.
Where's the shrieking about hate criminal purpleshirted
SEIU thugs?
<snippage of a bunch of extremely leftarded talking
points>
> Time is not on their side.
>
> Bret Cahill
Don't worry, the settlement from SEIU will pay for his health
care.
Anyway, the real message here is: America, if you don't
support Pelosicare, union thugs will send you to the hospital.
Card Check: another offer you can't refuse.
Forggedabout it.
And how about the guy who's finger was bitten off by
a Leftard PelosiCare supporter? He wasn't even there
to protest, he was just passing through. In his case,
he threw the first punch because the Leftard got in his
face and called him names. But I'm guessing the
biter wasn't a smelly Vegan hippie.
Errol
Hardly an issue who did what
The real issue?
There are three important points to acknowledge about people like
Gladney. First, they are not new. The cold war in general and
McCarthyism in particular was built on lies, misinformation, obsession
and guilt by the most tenuous of associations
Second, you can't argue with them. A good two and a half weeks after
failed rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina left bodies floating in
the streets and people abandoned on roofs, 35 percent of the country
believed that George W. Bush had done a good or excellent job
responding to the crisis. That is roughly the proportion of the
country with whom there is no real means of engagement. These are the
birthers, Swiftboaters, climate change skeptics, Obamaphobes and Palin-
tologists--the base. They live in a politically parallel world where
everyone they know believes the same as they do. They don't like
established facts, so they come armed with their own. The left has
such people too, but they are marginal. With no news channels to
promote them or Congressmen prepared to advocate for them, their views
rarely reach the mainstream.
Less than a third of the country believes Obama has clearly explained
his plans for healthcare reform. Two-thirds of independents and more
than a third of Democrats believe he hasn't. According to a CNN poll,
only one in five believes he or she will be better off after
healthcare reform has passed, and 40 percent say they are confused by
the proposals. Who can blame them?
A decisive portion of the country is desperate to be convinced. They
know that what they have now is terrible but have yet to be convinced
that what might come is better. How could it be otherwise when the
very person who launched the reform process--the president--keeps
hedging on its most essential element: the public option? The only
thing that is controversial about universal healthcare is that America
does not have it. The idea that a Democratic president with
substantial Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress might
fail to pass healthcare reform, well, that's enough to make anyone
crazy.
There you have it. The real issue is that bred-in-the-bone
stupiditymight prevent the USA from getting a decent health system
Bret Cahill
>
> > Union thugs beat him and called him the n-word, for
> > Allah's sake.
>
> > Where's the shrieking about hate criminal purpleshirted
> > SEIU thugs?
>
> > <snippage of a bunch of extremely leftarded talking
> > points>
>
> > > Time is not on their side.
>
> > > Bret Cahill
>
> > Don't worry, the settlement from SEIU will pay for his health
> > care.
>
> > Anyway, the real message here is: America, if you don't
> > support Pelosicare, union thugs will send you to the hospital.
>
> > Card Check: another offer you can't refuse.
> > Forggedabout it.
>
> > And how about the guy who's finger was bitten off by
> > a Leftard PelosiCare supporter? He wasn't even there
> > to protest, he was just passing through. In his case,
> > he threw the first punch because the Leftard got in his
> > face and called him names. But I'm guessing the
> > biter wasn't a smelly Vegan hippie.
>
> Hardly an issue who did what
As the article pointed out, rightards don't care about facts. They're
basically fantacizing out loud.
> The real issue?
Rightards generally dodge issues.
See the recent posts about "soft" propaganda.
That's why it would be just as well to strike down McCain Feingold.
The dumbing down is a done deal long before the campaign ever gets
started.
Bret Cahill