Blogging Against the Politics of Fear, Racism, and Republican, Right-Wing Authoritarian Personalities. "You can't not know. You can't not care."
There were violent protests in Tampa, Fla., today as people, admittedly spurred on by local GOP groups and Glenn Beck, descended on a peaceful town hall meeting for a discussion of health care reform issues concerning the citizens of Tampa.
Nothing is more antithetical to democracy than to silence people attempting to communicate with their Representative or Senator from Congress. Equally undemocratic is the squelching of dissent, so why are these protests not being greeted warmly, like civil rights marches, or protests against the war in Vietnam?
Those latter protesters wanted to be heard. They felt they were being ignored and would have welcomed a chance to sit face-to-face with a Senator or Congressperson and air their grievances.
The “astroturf” fake grass roots protests against health care have been invited into the room to be heard, and when given a chance to speak to their Representative or Senator, have just shouted the member of Congress down with chants, screams, and demonstrations invoking Hitler and lynching the Congressional member in effigy.
It would be analogous to a criminal taking people hostages and insisting that his demands be met. Then, when a negotiator tried to listen to those demands, the criminal shouted the negotiator down and stated nothing specific, nor listened to anything suggested by the negotiator.
The hostages would have a right to be frightened, because if the criminal would not present his list of demands to the negotiator, they could not be sure that they would ever be released. The whole point of hostage-taking by the criminal would be lost if he did not present his demands to one who would listen.
The protesting right-wing extremists are not there for a dialogue. They have no demands that should be met. They have no issues that they want to discuss. Instead, they are shutting down debate, with the goal of “rattling” the member of Congress and intimidating others from speaking.
Protesting is one thing. Shutting down discussion or debate is another, and it is wrong. Here is the St. Petersburg Times’ account of what took place today:
“Tyranny! Tyranny! Tyranny!” dozens of people shouted as U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, struggled to talk about health insurance reforms under consideration in Washington, D.C.
“Tell the truth! Tell the truth!” “Read the bill!” “Forty-million illegals! Forty million illegals!”
The spectacle at the Children’s Board in Ybor City sounded more like a wrestling cage match than a panel discussion on national policy, and it was just the latest example of a health care meeting disrupted by livid protesters. Similar scenes are likely to be repeated across the country as lawmakers head to their home districts for the summer recess…
Instead, hundreds of vocal critics turned out, many of them saying they had been spurred on through the Tampa 912 activist group promoted by conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck. Others had received e-mails from the Hillsborough Republican Party that urged people to speak out against the plan and offered talking points.
Protesters in Ybor City drown out health care summit on Obama’s proposal – St. Petersburg Times.
Steven Pearlstein, from the Washington Post, describes the efforts of the GOP and the corporate sponsors of the protests in clear terms (emphasis mine):
As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don’t agree. Today, I’m going to step over that line.
The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they’ve given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They’ve become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.
There are lots of valid criticisms that can be made against the health reform plans moving through Congress — I’ve made a few myself. But there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation…Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society — whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done.
If health reform is to be anyone’s Waterloo, let it be theirs.
