On his radio show today, Fox News host Glenn Beck called Medicare what it is — a “government-run health care plan.”Nice. We have now gone full circle on this merry-go-round cavalcade of crapulence. When it comes to killing Obamacare or throwing the elderly under the bus, Glenn Beck doesn't even hesitate before pitching them on the tracks.
Beck attacked the new compromise and proposed a simple solution of his own — “abolish Medicare”:
CO-HOST: This is unbelievable, because the whole thing with the public option, is we were saying this is going to be like Medicare, they just want to make a big — make another Medicare program. And then they said no, public option is just competition.
BECK: And, wait wait wait. And I also said why don’t you just abolish Medicare, because it’s so wildly corrupt and out of control. It’s so inefficient, it is so bad and there’s $47 billion in suspected wrong payments, okay, in Medicare. So what are they saying — now remember, what we’re going to do — the compromise is we’re going to expand Medicare. That way there won’t be a public option, we’ll just — which doesn’t make any sense — we’re going to expand Medicare.
Anyone who had just sat through the "Christmas Sweater" show, though, might have identified better with the man's original impulse. But in the theater where I watched the program, on the top floor of a high-end shopping mall near the D.C.-Maryland border, there weren't that many viewers to see it all go down. Beck simulcast his little pageant from a packed house in lower Manhattan, but 15 minutes before showtime in D.C., there were only 10 people in the audience with me. The crowd didn't grow much by the end of the night, either. The theater told me they sold fewer than 30 tickets, at $20 a pop. (That turned out to be the rule rather than the exception, according to anecdotal reports of small crowds all over.)Mr. Working Class Populist America is charging $20 a piece for his timeshare sales pitch, or new self-help book, or new breakfast cereal or whatever. I'm not sure who's more inane, Beck for such an obviously cynical fleecing of his base, or Beck's base for simply being Beck's base.
Why I Parted Ways With The Right
1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)
2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)
3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)
4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)
5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)
6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)
7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)
8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.
9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)
10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)
And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.
I won't be going over the cliff with them.Oh my my my. He dings pretty much every major Wingnut blog out there, El Rushbo, Glennsanity, Malkinvania and the whole crew. It's been done before, Wingnuts can reform (ask John Cole over at Balloon Juice). Chuck's former buddies are less than happy with him. But as Pam says:
These low-brow conservatives that coo over Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush are sheep -- no critical thinking whatsoever, in denial about how they are shilling for policies that hurt them, instead they focus on blaming on the "other" -- that doesn't look like them, worship like them, believe in reproductive freedom or isn't heterosexual. With fumes that weak, how can that movement sustain itself? It's an incredible feat.Hatred is self-sustaining. It's amazing how it keeps going. But it's even more amazing how people can sometimes redeem themselves from it.
The kind of wingnuttery Beck is embracing -- and promoting -- is a product of the kind of politics that now has conservative America in its thrall: right-wing populism. And it's not just Beck -- it's Sarah Palin, the Tea Parties, and the broad mainstream of the American Right who are careering down this path.And that's what it boils down to, God, Gold and Guns. If you have all three, then you win...and those who don't lose by default. Winger populism has always been the pursuit of all three, and more importantly the right to pursue all three without being contested. That's what America has been reduced to in this worldview.
Take this prime moment in yesterday's Beck show as an example. Beck -- being our Fearmonger in Chief, as usual, with handy chalkboard in hand -- told the audience that we have three potential economic outcomes facing the USA: Recession, Depression, or Collapse. In other words, Disaster, Doom, or Total Annihilation. It was, as always, an uplifting scenario. He also described how we normal folks respond at each step. Paying off our debts, building fruit cellars, that sort of thing.
Then he got to the third one:
Beck: The third one is Collapse. That's 'Get out of debt and save,' plus, 'Have a fruit cellar,' plus -- I like to call the "three G system" here for this -- it's, uh, God, Gold, and Guns."God, Gold and Guns" has quite the ring to it, doesn't it? And the thing about it is, it could stand in all three aspects as the Battle Cry of Right-Wing Populism -- not just now, but as we've known it for most of the past thirty years and more. Before Beck, there was the Posse Comitatus, and the militias, and the Ron Paul wing of the GOP -- all right-wing populists, and all focused largely on the mythology of right-wing "constitutionalism", whose three great appeals to the masses have revolved around embracing the notion of a "Christian nation," returning the U.S. to the gold standard, and defending gun rights.
Now personally, you might take God and put him as an umbrella over the whole thing. And then you got your gun and your gold down here too. But that's your choice.
Limbaugh noted that President Obama will be delivering his upcoming speech on Afghanistan, from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
"My question is: Will they detain him?" said Limbaugh. "Hopefully."It occurs to me that neither El Rushbo nor Glennsanity ever served in the military, and don't have a very high opinion of the sense of duty or honor of our troops. And yet these two idiots get to spew their degrading, dangerous trash on a daily basis, all in the name of our military:
And it let Beck lead exchanges like this, with Beck regular Charles Payne and talk-show host Lisa Fritsch:Oh Beck understands that point exactly, which is why he brought it up. His implication is the same as it was months ago when he accused the President of it: only racists identify themselves by racial identity, ergo African Americans, who identify themselves by race, are by definition racist. In a very real sense, Beck is implying that being proud of being black (and that of course brings up the ghosts of Malcolm X, Huey Newton, "uppity" and the entire closet full of bad connotations) is racism in 2009. "Aren't you over that by now? We're looking at two generations raised outside Jim Crow at this point, so how are you possibly still harping on this?"
Beck: How many people here identify themselves as African Americans? (About a third raise their hands) OK -- Why?
Payne: It's interchangeable.
Beck: But wait, wait. Why not identify yourself as Americans?
Fritsch: Well, people can look at you and tell you're black. You can't escape that.
Beck: Yeah, but I don't identify myself as white, or a white American.Will Brown of the New York Republican Community Coalition points out, adroitly, that "African American" is an "evolution" from the "N word" -- and certainly is preferable. Moreover, it wasn't black people who invented the "N word" or the segregation from enjoying the full fruits of American citizenship it represented -- it was white people. "African American" represents the recognition of their dignity and their rights as Americans.
Now that GDP has blipped up a tiny bit, expect these guys to start their song and dance in earnest. Ans yet, as Greider writes, there is every reason to believe that much more is going to be needed. But as far as these true believers are concerned, the crisis has past, now it's time to bleed the patient.The people responsible for the economic mess of course cannot expected to pay for it. You and I are. Anytime you hear anyone complaining about the deficit, it means "I don't want to pay for this mess we helped to create. I think the rest of America should instead."
Very cool Yes Men versus the Village Stenographers story aside (and more on that here) it's, as I said above, the Winger reaction to the Villagers getting completely embarrassed that I have to call attention to. While some are blaming MoveOn.org and some aren't, all are having a good laugh at the Villager's expense and are quick to say "Gosh, looks like the MSM doesn't fact-check, hurr."In a story posted Monday morning, Reuters declared: “The Chamber of Commerce said on Monday it will no longer opposes climate change legislation, but wants the bill to include a carbon tax.”
Reuters updated the story to acknowledge the hoax, but it was too late: The Washington Post and the New York Times had already posted the fake story on their Web sites.
"Reuters has an obligation to its clients to publish news and information that could move financial markets, and this story had the potential to do that,” said a Thomson Reuters spokesperson. “Once we had confirmed the release was a hoax, we immediately issued a correction, and in keeping with Reuters policy, the story was subsequently withdrawn and an advisory sent to readers."
The Yes Men, a left-leaning activist group that often impersonates officials from organizations they oppose, took responsibility for the hoax.
Andy Bichlbaum—an alias the activist uses for Yes Men demonstrations—told POLITICO that his group is targeting the Chamber for what he considers “retrograde” positions on climate change.
Guess what, assclowns? Neither do you. Or do we have to go on about how several blogs on the right spout the same unchecked talking points from the GOP on a daily basis. Death panels? Obama's concentration camps? Those one point nine million invisible teabaggers? The whole goddamn birther stupidity?
You guys fact check?
My ass. Bunch of hypocritical jagoffs that refuse to deal in the truth even more than the Villagers: at least they pretend to be balanced once in a while and do get their facts straight. But let's not pretend for a moment that spouting various viral Obama Derangement Syndrome garbage makes you somehow better that the Village Idiots, especially when you're so quick to blurt out any Drudge, El Rushbo, Glennsanity or Malkinvania fabrication of the day about Obama, Nancy Pelosi, any White House staffer you don't like, whatever. You're not fooling a damn thing.
Most of you exist to lie.
Jagoffs.
Traveling some 27,000 miles, African-American journalist Rich Benjamin roamed the United States from 2007 to 2009 exploring a major demographic shift that's attracting remarkably little attention — the flight of white residents from cities and integrated suburbs into cloistered, racially homogeneous enclaves. Tidy communities such as St. George, Utah and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho — places Benjamin calls Whitopias — have grown at triple the rate of America's cities in recent years, raising troubling questions about the country's multiracial cohesion. The Stanford literature PhD chronicled his adventure in a new book, Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America, and spoke with TIME about what he found.Here's what the Wingers will be screaming about tomorrow:
What is the danger Whitopias pose to America as a whole?Poor Rich Benjamin. He has no idea what's about to happen to him for speaking truth to power. Ask Charisse Carney-Nunes about the Winger revenge squads.You can call me old-fashioned, but I'm an integrationist. A democracy can't function at its optimum unless all members are integrated as full members.
A community full of like-minded people tends to enforce their own view of the world and closes off opposing viewpoints. You can go to parties in New York City where the liberal smugness is intolerable, because they're only hearing liberal viewpoints. On the Whitopian conservative side, it's spinning out of control. Look at the teabagger movement, where people are concerned their taxes are going to be wasted on minorities and illegal immigrants. Same with the movement that says Obama is not a citizen.
What Goldberg glosses over is that fact that all of these guys really have made racist comments at one point or another.Now, before I proceed, I should disclose the fact that I like Beck personally and that his support for my book
Liberal Fascism was a huge boon, helping to push it to No. 1 onThe New York Times best-seller list. As aFox News contributor, I have appeared regularly on his show. Whether that gives me more, or less, credibility when I say I cannot defend some of the things he says is for others to decide.Still, much of the anti-Beck backlash (He's an extremist! He's paranoid! He's hate-filled!) from the left is hard to take seriously. First, this is a crowd that lets
Michael Moore andJaneane Garofalo speak for them, and that celebrated the election of unfunny manAl Franken to the Senate. If you think it's racist to oppose Obama's health care reform efforts, it goes without saying that you'll think Beck is an extremist. This is what liberals always say about popular right-wingers, includingBarry Goldwater ,Ronald Reagan andWilliam F. Buckley . For over 20 years liberals, including Presidents Clinton and Obama, have insisted thatRush Limbaugh is everything from an unpatriotic hatemonger to an enabler of domestic terrorism. It makes sense that they'd give Beck the same business.
"The fact that our numbers are up 30 plus in the news arena on basic cable I'd like to think is a sign that we are just putting what we believe to be the facts out on the table," said Michael Clemente, Fox's senior vice president for news, in an interview on Tuesday. "In terms of the relationship, I think we are doing our job. And they [the White House] are doing their job."Facts don't matter to a news outlet like FOX. What FOX believes are the facts matters.
Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?Asked and answered, your honor.
Glenn Beck: the pudgy, buzz-cut, weeping phenomenon of radio, TV and books. Our hot summer of political combat is turning toward an autumn of showdowns over some of the biggest public-policy initiatives in decades. The creamy notions of postpartisan cooperation — poured abundantly over Obama's presidential campaign a year ago — have curdled into suspicion and feelings of helplessness. Trust is a toxic asset, sitting valueless on the national books. Good faith is trading at pennies on the dollar. The old American mind-set that Richard Hofstadter famously called "the paranoid style" — the sense that Masons or the railroads or the Pope or the guys in black helicopters are in league to destroy the country — is aflame again, fanned from both right and left. Between the liberal fantasies about Brownshirts at town halls and the conservative concoctions of brainwashed children goose-stepping to school, you'd think the Palm in Washington had been replaced with a Munich beer hall.It doesn't matter if Glennsanity is nuts, because liberals are just as crackpot. Totally equivalent. Oh, and it gets better. Glenn, you see, is crazy like a fox.
No one has a better feeling for this mood, and no one exploits it as well, as Beck. He is the hottest thing in the political-rant racket, left or right. A gifted entrepreneur of angst in a white-hot market. A man with his ear uniquely tuned to the precise frequency at which anger, suspicion and the fear that no one's listening all converge.Glenn Beck's not crazy. He's just like you. Liberals on the other hand?
We're in a flood stage, and who's to blame? The answer is like the estimates of the size of the crowd in Washington: Whom do you trust? Either the corrupt, communist-loving traitors on the left are causing this, or it's the racist, greedy warmongers on the right, or maybe the dishonest, incompetent, conniving media, which refuse to tell the truth about whomever you personally happen to despise.It's just a matter of perspective when Glenn says the President hates white people and goes on to exploit that fear. You say po-tay-to, he says race war. It's all good!
A top House Dem leadership aide has emailed a memo to Dem aides on the Hill and outside liberal groups warning they should brace for a turnout of up to two million people, suggesting Dems worry that if enough conservatives descend on the Mall it will amount to a major PR victory for the right.I hope it is two million. I honestly, geniuinely hope that two million virulently angry full-on birther/tenther crackpots show up with their DON'T TREAD ON ME flags and "Tree of Liberty" posters and "OBAMA=HITLER" signs and a couple hundred thousand kids being used as political props, and I hope whatever God is out there sees fit to make sure there's a whole hell of a lot of TV cameras there broadcasting live.The aide, Doug Thornell, warned in the memo that the dust-up over Joe “you lie” Wilson has been invigorating conservatives. “It looks like Saturday’s event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people,” Thornell wrote in the memo, which was forwarded by a source.
In another sign of concern, the memo painstakingly detailed a range of turnout predictions from the event’s organizers, such as this one from tea party leaders promising a crowd of up to 1,000,000.
Adding to Dem concern is the fact that Beck recently claimed a major victory in the ouster of former green jobs adviser Van Jones.
The House leadership memo predicting huge turnout could have been written in hopes that it would leak and inflate expectations for turnout, anticipating that it will fall far short. But Dems on the Hill insist they’re genuinely worried about what tomorrow will bring.
Because America needs to see it. The unedited, 110% unrated Director's Cut Special Edition of Obama Derangement Syndrome in all its terrible, rancid, exquisite, pus-filled, switchblades in the alleyway glory, brothers and sisters. Please, please, please let it just turn into a massive angry mob with people screaming how the viewers at home should be mortally terrified about Obama providing affordable health care while holding swastikas and burning effigies. I want to see folks out there with their guns and whatnot (in Washington D.C. no less, that'll go over well) saying how Obama is the anti-Christ.
In short, I want America and the world to see exactly what two million racist, paranoid, birther nutjob assholes looks like. I want it replayed on every TV all weekend long. I want news crews to show up and interview random whackjobs and see just what Republican members of Congress and Glenn Beck have created out there and I want those Village Idiots to say "My God, what have we done?"
And I want America to really and truly see the ugly, dirty, horrific underside of this movement and say "I want no part of these assclowns."
So please, by all means, let's see what happens when you get two million rabid Obama-hating lunatics in the same place with Glenn Beck and some cameras. I relish the thought.
Let's do it, guys. Let's see your hand. I'm getting some popcorn this evening.
Crank the Pretty Hate Machine up, boys. It's prime time!
[UPDATE 6:05 PM] Both Brian Beutler and Dave Weigel say the 2 million number is BS and the Dems are trying to sandbag the event should "only" a few hundred thousand turn up.
I say a few hundred thousand rabid teabaggers around some cameras is still going to be a hell of a freak show, folks. And they're going to be the hard core ones.
The truth is Van Jones didn't go down because of health care reform, but because the activist group he founded, Color of Change, went after Glenn Beck's advertisers on FOX News. It didn't matter that Jones left the group two years ago. The Wingers set out to destroy him, found their avenue of attack, and got their pound of flesh.Jones, who denied agreeing with the petition and issued an apology last week, said he was a victim of health-care reform opponents.
"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in the statement. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
"But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future," Jones said.
The Jones controversy centers on a 2004 petition he signed on a Web site that said: "A call for immediate inquiry into evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11 attacks to occur."
An administration source told CNN that Jones did not carefully review the language on the petition.
As he makes a real impact in pushing conservative fringe attacks on Obama administration officials into the mainstream, Glenn Beck’s Twitter feed has become a must-read. In a message from last night, Beck told his followers to “FIND EVERYTHING YOU CAN ON CASS SUNSTEIN, MARK LLOYD AND CAROL BROWNER.” They are, respectively, the nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer of the FCC, and the Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change. Browner was also administrator of the EPA for all eight years of Bill Clinton’s presidency.While Sunstein definitely will be attacked, my money's on the next target being Mark Lloyd, as he's the guy that represents the most paranoid threat that the Wingers have: that Obama is going to shut down right wing talk radio.
Beck’s ostensible purpose here is to expose the “czars” who’ve been appointed by the president. Sunstein stands out like a sore thumb, as he’s been tied up by holds and filibusters for months, and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) only filed for cloture on his nomination at the start of August.
Wow. "Extremist views and coarse rhetoric" have no place in the public debate? Some people don't seem to have gotten the memo.Doesn't matter. Attack Democrats for doing what you have done yourselves. The Republican attack plan hasn't changed since Newt Gingrich.
I certainly hope this makes it quite clear that consistency is not something Obama should count upon from his enemies. Indeed, I fully expect that the next time the Republicans take office they will launch several investigations of the previous Democratic administration (assuming they haven't already taken over congress, in which case they will begin while he's still in office.) They do not observe the self-imposed rules the Democrats put upon themselves. That should be obvious by now.
As for Jones, he says he signed that Truther petition without really reading it and thought he was signing something that merely requested further investigation. Who cares? We have people in the congress right now who assert that the president is an illegal alien and that the Democrats are going to euthanize old people. it's hard for me to give a damn about some stupid petition from a few years ago.
The idea that it's "politically suicidal" to filibuster Teddy's Kennedy's lifelong crusade is just hilarious to me.And not only will the Republicans fight all the harder to block it, but you will actually hear complaints from some of them that they are using Ted Kennedy's memory for purely political gain to smash through a travesty of a bill.
Rick Perlstein, who has a slightly better understanding of how conservatives actually do things, writes in an email:The Republican old bulls will say they're honoring EMK's memory by voting against cloture for what they'll say is a failed bill that he would never have happened had he been alive and kicking. And any bill that comes out of committee they'll say was a failed bill that never would have happened had he been alive and kicking. That's how they roll.Of course it is. They're already doing it. When are people going to understand how these people operate?
All through the Bush years, progressive right-wing watchers refused to call it "fascism" because, though we kept looking, we never saw clear signs of a deliberate, committed institutional partnership forming between America's conservative elites and its emerging homegrown brownshirt horde. We caught tantalizing signs of brief flirtations -- passing political alliances, money passing hands, far-right moonbat talking points flying out of the mouths of "mainstream" conservative leaders. But it was all circumstantial, and fairly transitory. The two sides kept a discreet distance from each other, at least in public. What went on behind closed doors, we could only guess. They certainly didn't act like a married couple.Personally, I don't want to believe that we're that close to groups of people roaming around, enforcing laws through violence. They're so far winning just by the threat of this kind of violence, but I don't see any effort whatsoever to put the brakes on. The beast is loose at this point, and I find it hard to disagree with Robinson on the point. These groups are very much sanctioned by the Republicans and are empowered by the Villagers looking for the next big story.Now, the guessing game is over. We know beyond doubt that the Teabag movement was created out of whole cloth by astroturf groups like Dick Armey's FreedomWorks and Tim Phillips' Americans for Prosperity, with massive media help from FOX News. We see the Birther fracas -- the kind of urban myth-making that should have never made it out of the pages of the National Enquirer -- being openly ratified by Congressional Republicans. We've seen Armey's own professionally-produced field manual that carefully instructs conservative goon squads in the fine art of disrupting the democratic governing process -- and the film of public officials being terrorized and threatened to the point where some of them required armed escorts to leave the building. We've seen Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."
This is the sign we were waiting for -- the one that tells us that yes, kids: we are there now. America's conservative elites have openly thrown in with the country's legions of discontented far right thugs. They have explicitly deputized them and empowered them to act as their enforcement arm on America's streets, sanctioning the physical harassment and intimidation of workers, liberals, and public officials who won't do their political or economic bidding.
This is the catalyzing moment at which honest-to-Hitler fascism begins. It's also our very last chance to stop it.
So how do we stop them? Robinson explores that in her article today, giving seven things people can do to try to take the country back. Way #6 seems especially useful:
It indeed is working well, as Glenn Beck is finding out the hard way.Sixth: Shut down the hate talkers. In most parts of the country, the teabaggers are coming straight out of right-wing talk-radio audiences. For hours every day, they're mainlining raw emotion and toxic misinformation.
They're going put your kids before "death panels!" They're going to kill your granny! You're going to have to call the White House to get a bone set! You'll be a Real American Hero if you get out there and join the "resistance!"
Cutting off this endless torrent of lies, fearmongering and validation will go a long way toward powering down the whole movement. (Conversely, what happens when these kinds of radio instigators are left to spin it all the way out to the end can be summed up in two words: Radio Rwanda.)
The basic recipe: Record their shows. Take notes of anything they say that is intimidating, threatening, or aimed at inciting violence against a named target. And while you're at it, note every single advertiser they have.
Then write a polite letter the CEOs of the sponsoring companies. Throw them some choice quotes from these shows and ask them if this is the kind of thing they want their product associated with. (Point out that if their own employees said things like this at work, they'd be fired on the spot.)
Often, the CEO has no clue that any of this is happening and will pull the ads as soon as she finds out what's being done in her name. This has worked extremely well -- and quickly -- at both the local and national level.
Web site ColorofChange.org, reacting to a long line of racial comments about President Barack Obama, has managed thus far to knock loose from Beck's fold Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble, Progressive, S.C. Johnson, GEICO, Men's Wearhouse and, just this morning, Sargento.I think more than anything else, the media is the key to stopping this mess."We applaud GEICO and all of the other companies who have stepped forward to pull their ads from Glenn Beck," said James Rucker, executive director of Color of Change, in a Tuesday media advisory. "Beck’s rhetoric is dangerous to the fabric of our democracy, and we are heartened that so many big companies feel the same way. We won’t stop here — we’re going to continue our fight to see that as many of Beck’s advertisers pull their support as possible."
The Republic has survived a lot. It will survive this, most likely. But it may need some help. I know I've been fatalistically complaining about this subject, but it helps me cope with the frustration. However, Robinson's article today does give some excellent and helpful advice.
You can find more of Robinson's work over at the always outstanding and informative Orcinus as well.
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.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".
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.
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