Town Halls and the Resurgence of the Radical Right

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Meaninful Healthcare Reform, a coalition of healthcare providers, peace and justice advocates, union members and reps, and individuals who are sick and/or disabled, hands out and posts the following at town hall meetings and other healthcare reform gatherings:

WARNING (Constructive Notice) To: All Present at.... Date:

Included in today's ________________________, are numerous sick and disabled individuals. These individuals, some of whom are in fragile condition, have the right to contact and communicate with their elected representatives without being harassed, intimidated, threatened, etc.

You are hereby noticed that any or all actions that harass, intimidate, threaten or are combative with aforementioned individuals, thereby causing harm or injury to them or their care providers, shall result in criminal complaints and/or civil actions being brought against any person(s) or group(s) causing such harm or injury.

Simply because your little tea parties are being funded by an ubiquitous and sinister parent organization a la Bond novels doesn't mean the money isn't flowing freely. Most major news outlets (go ahead, tell me how they're all in liberal's pockets...) have disclosed information on scores of people who've been inciting these meaningless spewings of hateful tripe--all of them paid by one or another conservative thinktank or citizen's group. It's not a darkened basement deal to fund these things, it's done under the harmless-sounding names of activist groups so it's largely unnoticed. You might be interested to note that the health sector--including pharmaceuticals and insurers--gave nearly identical sums to Democrats and Republicans in the last elections. Surprised? They know where their bread is buttered, and whoever ends up on top they can't afford to not have greased the wheels a little.

You groan about talking points, so explain to me exactly who's talking about legislating health care for illegal immigrants. Furthermore, tell me about all the excellent health care programs that are out there for millions of poor people who have plenty of disposable income to throw around. The point of healthcare reform is that we are paying increasingly exorbitant sums for healthcare that is often redundant, unnecessary, and doesn't give the greatest health outcomes.

I'm just wondering why it is "freedom's fresh air" when liberals protest Bush's war in Iraq, but it is something evil and contrived when concerned citizens, looking for answers to their health care concerns, get ticked off at pols who won't give them a straight answer at a Town Hall meeting? Where's the equality in political expression? Does Mr. Ridgeway have his nose out of joint because his political side and the Democrat President is catching a little bit of a voters' protest? What two-faced little babies! The Democrats and Progressives yell and whine when they aren't in power and when they get in power they expect everyone to sit-down and shut-up like little Marxist peons. Americans are daily wrestling with their politicians about every issue. It's the right of every political pursuasion to speak up at any time. That's what makes this country so much better than the Third World. Speak up and say your piece about every issue! Don't let anyone on the Right or the Left tell you to shut-up and sit-down!

What an unbelievable load of hate-filled tripe in this article and also the post "radical right... are missing a few brain cells" "refuse to be educated".

Its amazing to me that all the elite masters had to do was to install the right color puppet and suddenly half the population (the ones calling themselves progressive) are willing to get solidly behind government control of just about anything and everything (auto industry, health care, internet...).

It's just another genius move on their part along the same lines as installing GW the born-again puppet to get the religious conservatives to back their illegal wars.

Last time the so-called left was the demon labeled unpatriotic for protesting the war. Now its the so-called right who are the demons for protesting the over-reaching government actions on health care. Psst the war's still going on even if now ignored by the so-called left, except for a very few people like Cindy Sheehan (no longer a darling of the left according to her blogs).

It's definitely not due to a lack of education, there is no shortage of college educated individuals on either the right or left so that's just an insult and not an explanation or excuse.

I don't claim to know what the answer is. Maybe its something in all the processed food that causes people to act in such belligerent and nasty ways.

Maybe its just that people (left, right, liberal, conservative whatever...) are easily herded into groups and whipped into a frenzy against anyone who is not part of their group.

I'm sorry but I don't see a lot of tolerance or understanding anywhere these days, but especially on these internet forums.

Casual Observer,

There's a difference when there is actual proof that some of these far-right groups and individuals are on a payroll from a conservative think-tank or corporately-backed "interest group." It's the difference between being mad and vocal about abuses actually committed by the previous administration and spewing outright lies--lies admittedly fed to them by a larger organization with an axe to grind.

I won't squash anyone's right to speak up, though I do think it needs to be done more tactfully by BOTH sides. I can't abide, however, people who actively engage misinforming the public and perpetuating myths about an absolutely vital issue.

The major difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals don't carry guns and talk about overthrowing the government through violent means. We don't form militias. We don't compare reforming health care to Hitler's Germany. (Which makes no sense no matter what planet you live on.) Granted, both sides can be rude, angry and hyperbolic. But we on the left tend to only be that way in response to declaring war on other countries, not domestic policy reform.

Overall, I think that we'd have a much different conversation if the GOP/conservatives were basing more of their arguments on reality, not a whole lot of paranoid lies and misrepresentations of what the dems are actually trying to do. One side is talking actual policy proposals, the other side is just saying things like "no! Universal health insurance is something Hitler would support! Obama is a marxist/socialist/communist! Keep the government out of my medicare!" In that regard I almost feel bad for people who believe all those lies, for some reason they don't know any better, aren't very interested in critical thinking or thinking for themselves. Not to mention that most of them don't seem to know much about WWII or Hitler's rise to power.

We need serious reform, our health care system is broken and most of us are willing to admit so--things need to change and we cannot afford to stay on the path we are on.

For the record, Mother Jones isn't a "blog," it's a 30-year old magazine named for Mary Harris Jones, a very famous labor organizer.

Well, you're right that I--and everyone--should be careful about how we try to label those we are debating, and I didn't mean to offend. I don't think I used any insulting language in calling a conservative a conservative, but I guess that's just the world we live in, where liberal and conservative are curse words. It wasn't my intention to be inflammatory, but I also believe in calling things what they are--and point of fact is that most of this opposition is from people who sit well right-of-center.

However, in no way did I label "legitimate concerns" as lies. I labelled lies as lies. Obama is not a socialist, saying so would be a lie. What there *is* in the proposed legislation is support for expanded Medicare (already a social program) and cutting waste from it for efficiency's sake. There is nothing about death panels in the legislation, saying so would be a lie. What there *is* in the bill is voluntary end-of-life counseling, something which is of great importance for individual psychology and family concerns. You could make the argument that it's a voluntary form of watered-down euthanasia, in which case I would have my own concerns to raise. Unfortunately, no one from the opposition has been able to make such a coherent argument against it, instead they prefer to shout inanities and pretend that they might support a bill IF they get everything they want without ever planning on voting for it (pure speculation, I know).

Be prepared. I for one am not standing in a line for anyones handout when the SHTF. Self sufficiancy scares the crap out of the government. That means that they have NO control over you. Raise your own food. Make your own power. It doesn't take much at all to accomplish this. In just 2 years I have gone from negative to positive. No car loans. No debt. Money in the bank. If you aren't prepared before October 2009, forget it. Too late. Good luck Libs. We Right Radicals warned you.

Hey I For One, what happens to the men and woman who two years ago started doing what you were doing but they live in Florida (hurricanes) or in Tennessee (tornadoes) or in California (earthquakes)? They have solar panels on their roofs, they have a small farm, they process their own feces and food waste to make fuel. But then a non-man-made form of SHTF happens to them through natural disaster. Are you positive these people won't be looking to the social safety net then? Or what if they, like you, exercise and eat right and have absolutely no medical issues for three, four, even five decades, but then they just get old and can not get around like they use to. What happens then?

For too long, the conservatives have been too comfortable and too polite. "You just don't talk religion or politics". Play nice and don't rile up people was the way to get along. Certain conservatives have been trying to fuel the right to act but they couldn't get the majority to go against their culture.

But along comes Barack and Nancy. They have done what all the republican leaders couldn't do. They have woken up the sleeping giant.

Glen Beck is one of the biggest promoters of this sick philosophy there are many destructive people in this country right now who are generating this fear....

My question is what are THEY afraid of...........

Go ahead and complain but after 8 years of insulting Bush with the foulest mouths the left has to offer, your whining falls on deaf ears...Why don't you mention that the guy who was toting the assault rifle, the "Viper Militia" guy, was a BLACK man...isn't it interesting that MSNBC only showed him from the back...what are you guys trying to manipulate here? Now that the "Lyin' of the Senate" is dead, you think its "No rules"?

WE ARE WATCHING!

Yeah, boo hoo. After 40-50 years of non-stop reparations to blacks, we are suddenly waking up and finding armed thugs at our polling places, a self important AG deciding to hound people that have saved our lives (and maybe his) and a president who won't even tell us his grades from Harvard or Columbia (among a few other unimportant little things). He is in all likelyhood a Muslim who took a bunch of radical courses (like "lets ruin whitey"), is either a bastard or lying about something about his birth.

Yeah, boo hoo for you. I'll admit conservatives are very slow to wake up and more and more PC, but I'm not, you moron.

WOW! Another article from a liberal fop selling truths about LIBERALS as indictments against conservatives. One big, incoherent, rambling lie it is, LIBERALLY seasoned with racist innuendo and accusations of inbreeding and mental deficiency; just what these hacks have been shilling for ages in the newspapers, on the nightly news, and in the public schools and universities since truthful debate will expose your political beliefs as tired old MARXISM. Case in point why the majority of daily papers are broke and used primarily for catching parakeet poop. I guess nobody told him that the KKK was founded by ex-Confederate Southern Democrats. Do you think he remembers Al Gore's daddy voting against the 1964 Civil Rights Act (or that 3 times as many DEMOCRATS voted against it than republicans), Robert Bird's white hood, or that our Dear Leader Barry has consistently surrounded himself with America hating radicals and stated his Marxist beliefs and disdain for America since, say...BIRTH (where ever that MAY have been... HAW!).
I get it. I really do. You absolutely cannot believe that with control of all three branches of gov't, ACORN running the census, the media, the universities and public schools, the fed, the automobile industry, and all the rest you filthy America haters have gotten your grubby statists hands on that you could still lose the battle to "re-make" America. You forgot the most important part of this coup attempt, that you must sell it to the citizens and now you are finding that THE AMERICAN PEOPLE don't want it and you hate us for it and show it at every turn. Oops. Bad move.
So, go on and change the name to "TeddyCare" and accuse the heartland of racism in a childlike, pant wetting fit. Continue to slander and deride us. We expect it from the effeminate Left. Defacating lies from your suck hole with every breath is what we expect from you. Standing fast for the Republic is what YOU should expect from us. How will we stand fast you may ask? Voting, voting, voting. What if you choose to use reconciliation and ram it down our throats? Can you say... "Second Amendment"? Patriots understand that country hating pukes cringe in fear at the mention of it. An armed citizenry makes for something to think about for slobs like you that lust after power. Just try and force us to live by any other political structure than what our forefathers gave us in the Constitution. I wonder how badly you turds want to find out why that amendment was included. It sure is entertaining to watch you mouth breathers huff and puff though. DELICIOUS!!!