Blogging for the 99% and the preservation of our Democracy against the Corporatists and the Citizens United ruling.
Look, we all know that the groups being bused to Town Halls in the South are there at the direction of the Republicans and their insurance and big Pharma corporate masters. However, the news media has to fill a 24-hour cycle of air-time, so these town hall disruptions are getting an inappropriate amount of exposure on TV and in print.
To the general public, it appears that we are losing the health care reform debate.
Each time a story is reported on, it is couched in the frame of supporters of health care reform vs. very vocal, very angry protesters, who oppose health care reform. Think back to the global warming debate. We saw the same thing occurring in the media. Organizations consisting of thousands of scientists and climate specialists would debate a single guy being paid handsomely by the oil industry, presenting it as a debate between global warming believers, and those who doubt that global warming was real.
There is a false equivalence in presenting the debate as equally matched foes, each armed with facts. The corporate strategists who aim to defeat health care know that, at most, their “expert” only has to hold his own for two to three minutes of on-air debate. The idea of “we report, you decide” is a nice ideal, but it only works if they get the “we report” part correct.
Yesterday I saw a Southern gentlemen rattling off the dictators who have given “death orders” as the “final solution”, including Hitler, Stalin, etc., and then that same man asking what America’s “death orders” will be called if health care reform passes. The crowd at the rally were listening carefully to every word that was spoken, and I’m sure a large percentage believed him. I fully expected to hear a debate on CNN as to whether Obama was most like Stalin or Hitler, and would he terminate the lives of more people than both men put together.
Thankfully, that debate never came on CNN, but I would not have been shocked if it had. Although I don’t listen to right-wing talk radio, I’m sure that debate *did* take place somewhere in America on lunatic-fringe radio.
Consequently, we have to mobilize like we did last year, and start our own campaign for health care reform. We have to appear at rallies in larger numbers than the bused-in protesters, who by the way, are often people on Medicare. How Medicare recipients are convinced that their insurance run by the government is going to change, I really don’t know, but I would like to hear what they are told.
Using these tickers from FireDogLake.com, you can find an event to attend close to you. Remember that the idea is to speak up when disinformation is being yelled out, but not to get in a shouting match, or worse, a physical brawl. However, you should video the event and take snapshots and videos of those engaged in uncivil behavior, or of attendees with inappropriate signs and slogans. Upload your video to YouTube.com with the tags, “Health Care Reform” and “Town Hall Meetings”.
