Are Town Hall Activists Changing National Debate?
Want to have a little fun? Rush over the DemocraticUnderground and read the discussion under the report that the White House might abandon the public option, aka, socialized medicine. Here are some samples:
- We all know whats going to happen. We will have bent over and compromised to get bipartisan support – and the Repugs will vote against it anyway. Then when it fails – because they’ve weakened it to ineffectiveness and failure – they will blame the Dems.
How come all of us here at DU see this and President Obama doesn’t? - He’s just either: (1) too weak-willed to do anything about it, or (2) the best con-man to come around in a long time.
I’m starting to lean to option #2. - I will definitely not be voting for this useless excuse for a president next time around. Obama is a corporate tool. He’s nothing more than a walking, talking Hallmark Card designed to create warm-fuzzies so we the people will swallow the corporate agenda.
- This is such a WTF Moment. In fact, this will be the WTF? moment of his campaign if he allows this to happen. Surely the administration must have a feel for how people will react to this. Look at how many replies there are to this thread, and so quickly. They can’t be this stupid…………..can they? They must know that not just "any" bill will matter, it has to be one that brings about change. They really have to know this.
- Our leaders have sold us out. The co-op plan is doomed to fail and will not create sufficient competition to drive down insurance prices.
That’s a tiny sample from dozens of threads and hundreds (maybe thousands) of responses. There is no way on earth the White House can spin some co-op system as filing Obama’s healthcare reform agenda item. “They must know that not just ‘any’ bill will matter,” demonstrates how damaged the current administration is. Waterloo, indeed.
Moreover, the ham-fisted methods the White House employed to push this legislation through must be very worrisome for the far left. The administration showed a complete lack of awareness of public sentiment. Sending the President out unprepared to a press conference demonstrated the dangers of overconfidence. Using the state-run media to vilify the ordinary people who showed up these rallies only increased numbers and their vociferousness. Everything the supporters of socialized medicine tried seemed to generate more opposition, not less.
Most people were paying very little attention to this healthcare debate in early July. As the month wore on, though, people began to wonder why the White House was so insistent on cramming this through Congress in record time. As we started reading the bills and analyses thereof, we found why: this was socialism on a stick. The White House, and the socialists in Congress, knew that a public airing of this legislation would doom it. They were right.
The first town hall meltdown that went viral, I believe, was right here in St. Louis. Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO) held a midday forum at St. Louis Community College where he was unable to answer any question intelligently. In fact, his performance was so bad the audience laughed throughout. It sounded like a taping of the Tonight Show—only the people were laughing at Carnahan, not with him. (Of course, now we’re laughing at his wicked and bitter old mother, “widder” Carnahan, too.)
People all over the country caught on. They realized that they could show up to these town halls and speak directly to their representatives. They could find out if all the people supporting the White House plan were as clueless as Missouri’s Congressman from the 3rd District. Turns out, many of them were.
By early August, Town Hall inquiries were a fad. Democrats cancelled events, evoking more ridicule. The state run media tried to paint the people who asked tough questions and booed stupid answers as Nazi-like mobs. Lo and behold, Nancy Pelosi declared any form of dissent “un-American,” and Harry Reid joined her. The White House jumped in by asking citizens to turn in anyone speaking ill of ObamaCare.
Americans have a strong sense of fair play. When we see a WWII vet get pilloried for wondering whether a new law will deny him cataract surgery because they’re too old, we tend to side with the WWII vet. Powerful forces like governments and television networks, in this sense, are no match for a single, concerned citizen. How glorious is that?
Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer said last Sunday that the Town Hall protests were “playing into Democrat hands” by pushing the middle toward the President’s socialized medicine agenda. Today, he admitted he was just plain wrong. Like the President and Pelosi, Krauthammer misjudged America’s sense of justice and good medicine.
Where does this leave us?
Ready to mop up this battle and rally to the next. The White House and party leaders (both parties) in Congress will push for some bi-partisan, watered down bill. We will keep our eyes on that.
The far left in the House will attach the House—socialized medicine and all—to Reconciliation. The Tea Party movement and many grassroots organizations will scream bloody murder. My guess is that the socialists in Congress will force that showdown. It could go either way, but it will also end the careers of many sitting Congressmen. Hatred of Washington politicians in the exam room crosses party, economic, and racial lines. No one wants Nancy Pelosi peeking under his or her hospital gown. Eww.
On August 22, we will make our thoughts and passions unmistakably clear. We will not stand for socialism in America. We will not stand for parliamentarian tricks to deny the people their voice. We will hold the perpetrators accountable with an enormous change of seats in the 2010 election.
In addition to healthcare, we a good chance of getting the unspent Stimulus funds returned to the Treasury to erase hundreds of billions in irresponsible debt. Seventy percent of Americans—and majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—favor returning these billions immediately. This would be a remarkable victory for a Tea Party movement whose first battle cry in February was “Repeal the Pork.”
But the answer to the headline question is “Yes.” Ordinary citizens have dominated the news cycle for weeks. Now, we are dominating the thoughts of administration officials. The proponents of Washington bureaucratic healthcare are on defense and retreating. They are not finished, but they are in unfamiliar territory. The people can end this debate, and will, either shortly after the recess ends, or on Election Day 2010.
**NOTE** Originally, this post contained a link to thread discussing Charles Krauthammer’s concerns about Town Hall activism. I found the conversation on Google. Upon further review, I realized the conversation was on a bulletin board sponsored by people I’d rather not be associated with. I apologize to anyone who clicked that link before I removed it. My error. Thanks.
10 Responses to “Are Town Hall Activists Changing National Debate?”
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How about a spotlight on that healthcare board legislation that was snuck into that stimulous boondogle. How’s that for transparency Barry? Now that people are focused on socialized medicine—-people should know what the socialists have already snuck in without any debate, explanation, input or choice by us flyovers? And, on that board is Rahm’s brother—-the complete lives guru. People should hear about those types of terms so they can see how Barry is implementing hope, change and transparency! Quality adjusted life years—-like a cost benefit analysis—-or accounting depreciation or amortization method. We should be analyzing those morons in congress and evaluating their quality adjusted political lives, cost benefit analysis. How much of our money has been frittered away on those bozo’s and what exactly have we got out of them other then blarney and bs!
We should keep in mind the words of Obama’s mentor, Saul Alinsky:
RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”
Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.
(Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)
- Eric
http://www.ConservativePopulist.com
Apparently the POTUS says it is not true that he dropping the public option
read here…..I thought it was to good to be true no celebrating!!!
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/08/administration_official_sebelius_misspoke.php
We really can’t trust this man when he says anything; if he says he wants to drop the healthcare it just was too easy; we need to dig a lot deeper. I just had a feeling that some of this bill has already been implemented. Read this article below of this Sneaky-in-chief:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd462.htm
Pass this on.
The healthcare issue could just be the red herring this evil dictator needed. Remember he did this with the Defense Bill when he stuck an earmark of the hatecrime bill in it. And he still keeps talking about Gitmo when Congress already said no funding.
Krauthammer changed his mind on Sunday Fox News, and said he was wrong, the town hall protesters did change the health care debate positively.
here is the latest from http://www.larouchepac.com:
August 17, 2009 (LPAC)—The White House and Nancy “Marie Antoinette” Pelosi were in hiding from the cameras on Sunday, while more than 4 hours of TV “talking heads” shows addressed nothing but health care, and demonstrated that Obama’s Nazi health care policy is becoming more and more hated. The TV talk shows, from Fox Sunday, to ABC This Week, to Meet the Press, were total brawls that revealed that the votes are not there to pass the health plan in either the Senate or the House. Among the major revelations indicating that Obama is doomed were that:
(1) the public option is “not essential” — HHS Secretary Sibelius;
(2) “there are not enough votes in the U.S. Senate for the public option. There never have been,” and for the President to pursue this is a “wasted effort” — Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), a member of the “Gang of Six” bipartisan negotiators in the Senate Finance Committee;
(3) there is no September 15th deal promised by Sen. Max Baucus to Obama to produce a Senate Finance Committee bill. Instead, the Committee “will be ready when we are ready,” pending answers from the Congressional Budget Office — Sen. Kent Conrad;
(4) there will be no “mandatory end of life counseling” included in any bill that passes, according to Sen. Conrad, and Secretary Sibelius made a similar announcement that end of life counseling is “probably off the table” now due to the “horrific” opposition;
(5) IMAC and NICE are major targets of the Republicans who oppose the existing plans, but both TV moderators interrupted the Senators when they mentioned the names of these bodies. Instead, the moderators only wanted to use the term, “death panels.”
Specifically, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) went after the end of life counseling as intolerable, and also cited NICE as the model for “rationing,” and the reason that he recently told reporters that the “Democrats’ health plan will kill Americans.” When the moderator goaded him, “Is that reasonable discourse?” Coburn replied, “Absolutely … let’s look at the NICE system.” That led fellow guest Tom Daschle to cut him off in a frenzy.
Sen. Shelby repeatedly accused the White House of advocating rationing; a video was shown of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), another member of the bipartisan “Gang of Six” negotiating the Senate bill, has been at several town meetings in Iowa, where he is saying that we “should not have counseling on the end of life … we should not have a government program that determines you’re going to pull the plug on Grandma.” And Sen. Orin Hatch, who has co-sponsored health bills with Kennedy, Waxman, and Dodd, said he will not negotiate with the White House until the “government option” is removed completely, and went after the “IMAC” board by name, directly noting that this rationing board would be appointed only by the President.
More and more people are saying that the health plan is doomed. A.B. Stoddard from The Hill reported that in a conversation with a “leading” Blue Dog Democrat, he revealed that they “are not going to be able to pass” a bill in the House, because the Blue Dogs “are peeling off” from support. Polls show that opposition to the health care is about 7 percentage points above support; Sen. Shelby said that the Town Hall protests are having a major effect on how the Congress will vote.
The gorilla in this room is that this is all unconstitutional.
They (at least my congresswoman) passed the October bailout without reading it, and it hasn’t achieved what they promised it would–in spite of it, many more auto dealers have closed, more banks have failed, etc. No one wants to tell Joe Taxpayer where the money went. They passed Cap and Trade in the House without reading it, and couldn’t possibly have known what they were voting for, in totality.
This represents a complete betrayal of my trust.
Since they have proven themselves so untrustworthy, I now have yet another job, which is “bird-dogging” their every move, on every gargantuan new legislative offering, which stifles my liberty and imposes more tyranny, until proven otherwise. What strange new hell is this? In addition to the work I have already chosen to do, I have a full time job I did not ask for? One word comes to mind: slavery.
I sincerely wish my regards to your protests success, you’re doing a job some of us can’t as we face debilitating handicaps, however I have one request. Please stop the Nazi accusations. There is no comparison, neither Republican nor Democrat in history has wrought in his term the death, destruction or careless disregard for mankind’s most basic freedoms. I attended many anti-war protests in my day, shaming liberals for their caustic misuse of Hitler’s name, and his party, as I now do to you. Stop it. You have no idea what you are doing. But if you keep it up, his name will be as lighthearted a reference as “Benedict Arnold” or “Judas”
He is not your evil. He was ours, my cultures, my father’s. You are comparing melons to 50 foot oak trees and you had best stop it before you lose even us Zionists.
Ezekiel Emanuel, the top healthcare adviser at Obama’s Budget Office and brother of his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, believes it is “obvious” that people with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia (estimated as one of three people who live beyond the age of 65) should be denied health-care, since they are “irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens.” An essay published in the Hastings Center Report (Nov-Dec 1996) by Emanuel, Norman Daniels and Bruce Jennings, says in part:
“This civic republican or deliberative democratic conception of the good provides both procedural and substantive insights for developing a just allocation of health care resources. Procedurally, it suggests the need for public forums to deliberate about which health services should be considered basic and should be socially guaranteed. Substantively, it suggests services that promote the continuation of the polity – those that ensure healthy future generations, ensure development of practical reasoning skills, and ensure full and active participation by citizens in public deliberation – are to be socially guaranteed as basic. Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”
Alexander Hamilton,
Enlightening!
“…it suggests services…that ensure healthy future generations…development of practical reasoning skills…”
Such as the WIC program, perhaps? Which facilitates the impoverished mother artificially feeding her baby, allowing for sub-optimal nutrition (bad for brain development), farming out the baby to the borderline personality bottle-propping paramour who slings baby head first into the wall (bad for brain development), and more frequent middle ear infections, hampering the acquisition of language?
Sounds harsh, I know. But, this is the reality.