Adventure is worthwhile - Aesop

Shut Up And Take It Like A Man

by Hal_10000

Of the many many many aspects of the healthcare debate, there has been one recent talking point that I can not countenance.  It is the condescension being thrown at the people protesting against the current healthcare reform.  We are seeing rehash of the response to the tea parties—the airwaves are filled with liberals simply refusing to admit that anyone opposed to Obama’s policies opposes them on principal.  No, they are all shills for corporate America, motivated by ignorance, spurred by secret internet cabals and probably racist as well (to judge by the reaction to the Obama/Joker posters).

Look, it’s one thing to say that the opposition is wrong or misguided.  But listen to the comments in Amanda Carey’s round-up.  These are not atypical:

“It is a small fringe group, and if we let a small group of people who want to monopolize the conversation and not listen to the facts win, you may as well hang it up,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) took it one step further by saying, “These town hall meetings have been orchestrated by the tea baggers and the birthers to just be a free-for-all, make a lot of noise, go on YouTube and show discord. I mean that is what they are determined to do. But that is not going to accomplish what we need to accomplish: real health care reform.”

Always the optimist, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responded, “In spite of the loud, shrill voices trying to interrupt town hall meetings and just throw a monkey wrench into everything we’re going to continue to be positive and work hard.” However Pollyanna-ish that sounds, what Reid is really saying is that he doesn’t want to listen to the opposition—even if they are his constituents. Good luck in 2010!

Mr. Reid, those fringe groups are actually the majority.  Not all of that 52% opposes your plan, but they are all concerned about the cost and the potential loss of freedom.  You can not dismiss that as a “fringe”.  That’s almost a large a “fringe” as voted Obama into the White House.

What particularly bothers me is the allegation that these protests are the result of “astroturfing”—fake grass roots movements spawned by special interests.  Liberals have been very critical of these protests being coordinated online (even the the point of wildly exaggerating supposed connections).

Of course, you already know what I’m going to say next: they were fine when similar things were done my Move-on, by Code Pink or by ACORN.  They’re even fine when somewhat mainstream organizations like Nader’s group or public employees unions have coordinated protests with pre-made signs and pre-written “spontaneous” cheers.

There is nothing spontaneous about supposed liberal grass roots movements and there never has been.  I once lived in an area that was considering a massive tax hike to pay for schools.  At the hearing, every single speaker was in favor of the tax hike.  I later spoke with a county commissioner who told me that the teachers union always sent over dozens of people hours before the meeting to sign up for every available speaking slot to make it appear that the tax hike had unanimous support.

How was that legitimate but the town hall protests are not?  Remember when small organizations using the internet to organize and speak out was revolutionary and the wave of the future?  You should, because it was only last year with the Obama campaign.  And the idea that these protests are being coordinated by special interests is laughable.  The special interests—the AMA, the ACS, the insurers lobbies—are in favor of Obamacare.  They are lining up even as I type to take their subsidies.

Actual reporters are finding that these protests are a lot more genuine than the Democrats and their media shills would like to pretend.  It’s funny, isn’t it, what happens when you do some actual reporting instead of repeating Democratic Party talking points

Then, of course, there’s the utterly creepifying call of the White House to turn people in if they are spreading misinformation.  Is the White House so tone-deaf that they don’t realize how Orwellian that sounds?  (Answer: probably) Yeah, Bush has his stupid TIPS program where cable guys and garbage men were supposed to report suspicious activity.  But at least that was targeted at something illegal—acts of terrorism—not something legal—expressing an opinion.  Bush never called for some sort of Night Watch to let him know who disagreed with him (and you can imagine the reaction if he had).  He felt that being right was enough.

(I’m actually curious what happens to people turned in.  If I keep blogging, I guess I’ll find out.)

It probably all crystalized for me in this letter that Sully published this morning.  Apparently, anyone who oppose healthcare is old, white, scared and unable to listen; anyone in favor if young, ethnically diverse, generous and open-minded.  Big conclusions for a sample of N=2, when the 2 weren’t even talking about health care.

The attitude emerging from the Left is that protesting things—even with outrageous language and absurd metaphors is fine—if you’re a liberal.  That’s what the First Amendment is for.  It’s the 60’s all over again!  But now that the libs are in power, the conservatives need to just sit down and shut up.  We’re not supposed to object, to protest or to show up at town hall meetings.  We need to sit quietly, nod our heads and let our benevolent overlords work their magic.  As Lee would say, now that the Left has used free speech and organization to get into power, they want to close the door behind them.

The Left has always had a belief in their own rightness and morality that matches anything you will see from the most ardent of Christians.  The only bias in media is the vile Fox News; the NYT and WaPo and ABC/CBS/PMSNBC are all just right when they echo the Democrats.  The only hate-mongers are Hannity and Limbaugh and Beck; Garofalo and Olberman are just being honest.  The only unruly mobs are right-wing mobs; left-wing mobs are legitimate.

Look.  Everyone thinks that they are right.  Everyone thinks that their view are sensible and obvious.  Everyone thinks that the opposition is misguided.  But there is a peculiar, not to say alarming, tendency of the Left to believe that no one who knows anything could really oppose their policies; that all the opposition really needs is a little “re-Neducation”.

For all the mocking we did of the anti-war protesters and the anger we had when they branded Bush as a Nazi, we never said they were the tools of “powerful lobbies”, we never accused them of manufacturing outrage and we sure as shit never called for citizens to report them to the White House.

But, as always, I find encouragement in floundering of the Left.  The only reason they are reacting this way is because they are losing the debate.  They have all the special interests on their side, all the media on their side and they are getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of bloggers, radio show hosts and assholes on the internet.  Think about this—the Orwellian video telling people to turn in healthcare dissidents was made in response to some random guy who spliced together a few videos and put them up on YouTube.  Can you imagine the Bush Administration—can you imagine the Clinton Administration—can you imaging the Filmore Administration—getting so rattled by a fucking internet video mash-up?

They’re scared.  And they should be.  Their window to “change America” is closing by the second.  The word is getting out.  And they don’t like it, no sir, not one little bit.

Update: Morrissey catches the libs doing a little astroturfing of their own.  The punch line?  They asked their supporters to attend a townhall meeting that didn’t exist.

Update: Of course, then Rush Limbaugh has to ruin it for everyone.  If comparing Bush to Hitler was wrong, comparing Obama to Hitler is just as wrong.

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