War of Words

Seems that Legal Insurrection's William Jacobsen has taken offense to my characterization of the Town Hall Blitz movement as a "war".

So screams left-wing blogger Zandar feeding off of the frenzied writings of Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein, who declared health care protesters "political terrorists." To make sure we didn't miss the point, Zandar put the words in bold type. The blog is Zandar Versus the Stupid. If ever there were an ironic blog name, that is it.

My reponse:

Greetings. Zandar here.

You took my words out of context, sir. When I wrote this morning "So, they've gone into Town Hall Blitz mode. The country is already a poorer place for it. They've tapped into Obama Derangement Syndrome for a toxic boost of raw energy. They're willing to take any and every risk to win. They have to. I dont think the Democrats quite understand it yet (some do), but more and more people are coming around to this fact. It's war."

The "they" I was talking about was the astroturfing tea party movement disruptors, and the Republican Party. That is the side that has declared a "war". As I have said, I believe the conservative side considers defeating this measure an existential battle. Remember the comments of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who called health care reform "Obama's Waterloo" and said the goal was to "break him."

That, and other statements like it, was the declaration of war I was referring to.

Even you have to admit that if the Democrats are able to pass a robust health care reform bill with 99% of the Republican Party opposing it, the millions of people the bill does help will not be inclined towards voting Republican, yes?

This is about power for the conservative side, not about health care.

May I also suggest Jacobsen's very valid request about ratcheting down the rhetoric also be applied to, say, people pretending to poison the Speaker of the House, people comparing the Democrats' health plan to the German persecution of Anne Frank, people threatening to have pro health care reform protesters "come up against the Second Amendment", people making death threats against members of Congress, and people referring to pro health care protesters as "Obama's brownshirts".

I heartily agree with him that such rhetoric has no place in a civilized discussion of federal health care policy.

Have a nice day.