fear Obama?
|
I
don’t usually wade into the morass of politics here, but man, the
rhetoric
generated by the right-wing fringe about the health care debate has
really spun
out of control, hasn’t it? I’d almost
forgotten about all the whackos that worship Timothy McVey, loath Janet
Reno,
and cheered at the sight of all those dead DEA agents in Really? No
seriously, really? Other
than being further proof that the redneckus
ignoramus is not just a southern species, doesn’t this seem to
indicate that the right-wing militia movement
is full of a bunch of pansies? I mean
seriously, do you think Obama has ever been in a fight?
Doesn’t he remind you more of Jack than of I
mean, yeah, it must be intimidating to some people to have a leader who
is so
obviously intelligent, educated, and poised, but the level of hatred
and unabashed
vitriol that is spewing from the right is just mystifying to me. Perhaps it’s like the way Bill Maher has
described the Taliban and their ilk: “They hate us because we don’t
even know
why they hate us.” As
a simple thought experiment, let’s compare the past administration and
the
current one and see who has more similarities to the Nazis and the
Gestapo. On the one hand we have an
administration
that: Deceived
its own citizens and the world community to invade a sovereign nation
under
false pretenses; Established
a secret wire tap program for spying on its own citizens (Jesus, even John Ashcroft thought
that was going too far); Violated Bankrupted
the country and destroyed its economy with an overly ambitious and
poorly
planned war; And
(my favorite), consolidated political power in a secret bunker. On the other hand we have:
Wants
to avoid the economic collapse brought on by his predecessor’s policies
and
to make health care available to all citizens. Yeah,
I can see how that last one would remind you of Hitler. Ok,
fair enough, I will concede one point: like Hitler, Obama is an
inspiring and
talented orator, whereas W. was an utter
embarrassment whenever he got within ten feet of a microphone. Whenever the guy opened his mouth, I could
imagine the entire faculty of Yale cringing at the thought that they
had produced
such an ill-prepared graduate. So yeah,
in that sense Obama is really a lot more like Hitler than W. You got me there. So
who are the jack-booted thugs here? The
doctors who could be reimbursed for setting up living wills, or the
guys with
AR-15’s and David Koresh
fetishes at town hall
meetings? In
other words, how do you have a reasonable debate with people who are
utterly and completely irrational? The
real travesty of this whole situation is that the nut jobs are drowning
out the
people with legitimate concerns. I think
yeah, there may be some truth to the claim that Obama may be just a
little too
slick and media savy; he seems a little too willing to cut a deal, any deal,
and some of his choices seem more about polls than really doing the
Right Thing
for the country. Maybe there is too much
emphasis on style and not enough on substance. (Of
course, we’re talking politics here; just because the
style is what
comes through in the sound byte doesn’t automatically mean there isn’t
substance to back it up.) And I’d like
to hear a better answer about how we’re really going to pay for
health-care reform,
even though most people seem to agree that if we do nothing we’ll be
broke in a
decade regardless. If the Republicans
really do have any serious counter-proposals, I haven’t heard them. All I’ve heard is the same old rhetoric of
fear that got Bush/Cheney re-elected. (Which
reminds me of the other funny thing I saw on
someone’s car
recently: “Don’t blame me; I voted for the war hero!”
I assume he meant McCain, but who knows,
maybe he really meant Kerry.) So
enough with the guns, and the Nazi references, and the shouting, and
the noise. Or it’s off
to the liberal death
camps with you! |