Routinely, when reading news or blogs online, I go down to the comments immediately because I want to read what people think before I develop my own opinion. Usually it doesn't really influence my thoughts because most of the comments are pretty redonkulous, but what it does do for me is give me a pulse of what is going on nationwide. However, after reading the comments on "Summer of Hate," and the blog itself, I'm actually pretty frightened for the future of this country.
Example? North49. His/her comment states:
"MSNBC parrots the Obama party line. FOX NEWS at least to some extent tries to expose the nature of the beast that seeks to expand the state, while the Obots blindly sing the praises of enslaving statism. There are an abundance of "Harvard scholars" following BO like he's the Pied Piper, methinks. Does the over "edjumicated" elite know how idiotic they appear pretending to oppose slavery as one of America's worst sins, while embracing enslaving socialism of the Bolshevik Obama?"
It wasn't this specific comment that worried me per se, but instead the thread of comments that proceeded it. There is a lot of hostility and anger going on right now regarding health care reform and what is even scarier is the threat of violence that we are seeing all over the country. Now, the thread didn't specifically state a type of threat, however the comments, as you can probably tell, does illustrate a highly heated discussion with some surprisingly unintelligent remarks or responses. Let me just put it this way, as a hard-core, progressive, social liberal, these conversations taking place online and offline scare the bejesus' out of me. If the Republicans losing the elections in 2006/2008 elections, and their faltering popularity in the last 8 months gave some indication of their demise...the health care debate is slowly reviving the conservative movement and its agenda, specifically from the grassroots movement of the conservative party.
Yesterday, as I was watched CSPAN, the Americans for Prosperity conference came on. Now, some will say it is a copy-cat of a progressive conference for bloggers that already exists, (Netroots Nation Conference), but for the purpose of sticking to my point, I'll let this one slide. So, Americans for Prosperity. The speaker that was highlighted was Michelle Malkin. I do not know much about her, but what I do know is that she is now one of the new faces of the Republican party (and the new Ann Coulter of the conservative party, in my opinion BUT a bit smarter) From the sounds of her latest book and what she was vocalizing this weekend at this bloggers conference, is that conservatives at the grassroots level, are hating on today's GOP. In addition, it seems that they also despise those within the Republican party who think the party should go through a "re-branding" process. Michelle Malkin, like those in the audience I presume, believe that the Republican party should stick to the ideology that they have always been known for and in regards to the current health care debate, she insinuated that those attending the town hall meetings all over the country, should stick to their guns (literally speaking) Ok, the latter part about the guns...may not have been said, however she did insinuate that those protesting had every right to be there, guns or no guns. In all honesty, her speech was really powerful and had I been a cut throat conservative, card carrying member of the NRA, with a loaded .45 in my car, I would have been truly inspired and ready for war against those socialist and liberal fascists, as the conservative base calls us.
Honestly, if you were not scared before...you should be now. Listening to Michelle Malkin scared the shit out of me! Why? Because if I am someone in the conservative movement, still pissed that Barack Hussien Obama won the presidential election by a mandate in November 2008, and in my ear I have conservative pundits like this Michelle person, in addition to the Rushes of the conservative radio world, telling me to go to the mattresses...(add country accent here) "you're gawd damn right I'm gonna do somethin!" Specific leaders in the GOP, in addition to popular conservative talk-show hosts, have inadvertently and/or have outright supported some of the most vocal (and honestly, very scary) protests going on all over the country these last two weeks and Michelle Malkin is another potential person adding fuel to an already out of control fire.
Yesterday, as I was watched CSPAN, the Americans for Prosperity conference came on. Now, some will say it is a copy-cat of a progressive conference for bloggers that already exists, (Netroots Nation Conference), but for the purpose of sticking to my point, I'll let this one slide. So, Americans for Prosperity. The speaker that was highlighted was Michelle Malkin. I do not know much about her, but what I do know is that she is now one of the new faces of the Republican party (and the new Ann Coulter of the conservative party, in my opinion BUT a bit smarter) From the sounds of her latest book and what she was vocalizing this weekend at this bloggers conference, is that conservatives at the grassroots level, are hating on today's GOP. In addition, it seems that they also despise those within the Republican party who think the party should go through a "re-branding" process. Michelle Malkin, like those in the audience I presume, believe that the Republican party should stick to the ideology that they have always been known for and in regards to the current health care debate, she insinuated that those attending the town hall meetings all over the country, should stick to their guns (literally speaking) Ok, the latter part about the guns...may not have been said, however she did insinuate that those protesting had every right to be there, guns or no guns. In all honesty, her speech was really powerful and had I been a cut throat conservative, card carrying member of the NRA, with a loaded .45 in my car, I would have been truly inspired and ready for war against those socialist and liberal fascists, as the conservative base calls us.
Honestly, if you were not scared before...you should be now. Listening to Michelle Malkin scared the shit out of me! Why? Because if I am someone in the conservative movement, still pissed that Barack Hussien Obama won the presidential election by a mandate in November 2008, and in my ear I have conservative pundits like this Michelle person, in addition to the Rushes of the conservative radio world, telling me to go to the mattresses...(add country accent here) "you're gawd damn right I'm gonna do somethin!" Specific leaders in the GOP, in addition to popular conservative talk-show hosts, have inadvertently and/or have outright supported some of the most vocal (and honestly, very scary) protests going on all over the country these last two weeks and Michelle Malkin is another potential person adding fuel to an already out of control fire.
Believe me, I'm one of those people who tries to limit myself to as little corporate-owned news media outlets as possible. I know that these news outlets tend to sensationalize the news more often then not, however the last few weeks have prompted me to be overly concerned over our current health care debate and the antics going on at these town hall meetings. Not even the news network cannot over-hype. It is no longer a debate about health care reform, but a platform for a people to speak freely about their dissatisfaction over a president they were never going to like. Furthermore, the conservative grassroots movement has taken the same stance as the Republicans in the Beltway, who have unanimously taken on a decisive position to watch President Obama fail. Republicans have allowed and openly engaged members of their party in "death panel" politics allowing it to overwhelm the real health care debate.
As Bill Clinton stated at his speech during the Netroots Nation Conference in Pittsburgh this weekend, "America is closer now than ever before" in regards to passing health care reform. Yet what is frustrating is seeing Obama prioritize his political capital over policy making, not at all considering all we have had to put up with as Progressives for the last 8 years and everything we have had to work for to get a majority in Congress. Today we hear that Obama is considering dropping public option from the table, in order to ease tensions, I presume. Bottom line President Obama, you drop public options, you lose a large supporter base. Furthermore, the conservatives don't care what you do because in the end, they will still defy you. Republicans will never support you Mr. President. They have blatantly and publicly stated this outpouring of distaste for your presidency and they will not stand down. While I commend you for all you have tried to do, trying to build a bridge between the two party lines...the fact is that the conservative movement will never back down. You have majority Mr. President. Stop peddling around and get this country moving again. We need to protect and sustain our progressive majority and we need to pass health care reform this year, with public option!
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Powerful post. We need leadership, now more than ever.
ReplyDeleteIronic how the people that can benefit the most from health care reform are the first to rally against it.
You bring up a great point re: hate language, attitude threatening not just policy but the lives of human beings.
ReplyDeleteWith the hateful atmosphere around - not health care - but Obama, it makes me think of Timothy McVeigh and those like minded that strongly believe that they have the right to kill in order to defend, not America, but their own personal beliefs.
Hate speech was tumultuous during the Jim Crow era, wait let me rephrase that, the hate speech and actions during the Jim Crow Era, all the way to the 50s and 60s resulted in the lynchings, arrests, beatings and deaths of so many Americans and great leaders, MLK, John & Bobby Kennedy. We saw this again with the Oklahoma bombings...my point is, instilling hate and hateful actions at the cost of other people's lives should be condemned. One thing is to be passionate, another is to be physically threatening with a rifle at a rally. Hateful language + fanatic who is willing to take action = loss of ????? What are we waiting for? And all the while the focus is away from policy; you're right Angelica, I myself distracted myself away from the health care discussion to talk about the threat of violence and ultimately the right has won. Not talking about the issue at hand gives the pro-hate, no-change folks the upper hand.
Pao