September 13, 2009
An Unhinged Right Wing. But Why?
Gary Younge: It's Not Happenstance. History Demonstrates A Method To Their Madness
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A protestor at a "tea party" rally, July 4, 2009. (CBS)
Spare a thought, and maybe even a dime, for Kenneth Gladney. In August he and other members of the right-wing St. Louis Tea Party arrived at a town-hall meeting organized by Missouri Democrat Russ Carnahan to lobby against universal healthcare. In the spirit of this fraught summer, a fight broke out, ending in six arrests.
Who threw the first punch depends on whom you ask. But who got the worst of it was fairly clear. Gladney was taken to the emergency room with injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face and ended up in a wheelchair. His troubles were just beginning. Recently laid off, this particular anti-health reform protester, it turned out, had no health insurance. Last heard, he was still accepting donations for his medical expenses.
It's not difficult to ridicule the American right. Its peculiar blend of paranoia, mania, fantasy and misanthropy has been given full rein these past few months. Those who demanded in July to see Obama's birth certificate (which does exist) ended August invoking the British healthcare system's "death panels" (which do not). That most of their claims were verifiably false was of little consequence--to them at least. At one point they insisted that if scientist Stephen Hawking were British and subject to the National Health Service, he would be dead, even though Hawking is British, alive and grateful to the NHS for his care.
So progressives could be forgiven for branding the right as stupid and crazy. But they would also be wrong. For if this is madness, there is great method in it. It is well organized and well funded. It has proven effective in mobilizing support, creating "controversy" where little exists and disrupting and disorienting whatever national conversation there is. If it is stupid, then what does it say about us, since time and again it manages to outmaneuver the left? Annoying, bizarre, incoherent, divisive, intolerant, small-minded, misinformed, ill informed and disinformed, certainly. But stupid and crazy--anything but. It takes considerable skill to convince people that something that is clearly good for them--like universal healthcare--is not. If the right is crazy, it is crazy like a Fox News presenter. Reducing a political strategy or belief to a psychological disorder to dismiss and ridicule its proponents may be comforting. But it also abandons any hope of defeating it or stymieing its influence beyond therapy.
There are three important points to acknowledge about people like Gladney. First, they are not new. The cold war in general and McCarthyism in particular was built on lies, misinformation, obsession and guilt by the most tenuous of associations. After Eisenhower defeated Taft at the 1952 GOP convention, a woman emerged insisting, "This means eight more years of socialism." In the late 1940s, a chairman of a federal loyalty review board conceded, "Of course, the fact that a person believes in racial equality doesn't prove that he's a communist. But it certainly makes you look twice, doesn't it? You can't get away from the fact that racial equality is part of the communist line." Today the Internet distributes these slurs faster, and cable TV gives them more outlets. But there has always been a sizable section of society that seeks to fashion a bespoke reality out of whole cloth. These are the people who believe that civil rights was really about miscegenation, abortion rights is about promiscuity and gay rights is about pedophilia. There are more of them than we'd like to think. And they are not going away.
Second, you can't argue with them. A good two and a half weeks after failed rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina left bodies floating in the streets and people abandoned on roofs, 35 percent of the country believed that George W. Bush had done a good or excellent job responding to the crisis. That is roughly the proportion of the country with whom there is no real means of engagement. These are the birthers, Swiftboaters, climate change skeptics, Obamaphobes and Palin-tologists--the base. They live in a politically parallel world where everyone they know believes the same as they do. They don't like established facts, so they come armed with their own. The left has such people too, but they are marginal. With no news channels to promote them or Congressmen prepared to advocate for them, their views rarely reach the mainstream.
Third, we can beat them. These people gain the kind of purchase that shifts them from an irritant to an obstacle only when there is a vacuum of leadership and the absence of good alternatives. It is only under these conditions that they are able to cast unreasonable doubt in the reasonable minds of those who seek clarification, encouragement or a stake in any substantive change. This is precisely what has happened with the healthcare debate over the past few months.
Less than a third of the country believes Obama has clearly explained his plans for healthcare reform. Two-thirds of independents and more than a third of Democrats believe he hasn't. According to a CNN poll, only one in five believes he or she will be better off after healthcare reform has passed, and 40 percent say they are confused by the proposals. Who can blame them?
A decisive portion of the country is desperate to be convinced. They know that what they have now is terrible but have yet to be convinced that what might come is better. How could it be otherwise when the very person who launched the reform process--the president--keeps hedging on its most essential element: the public option? The only thing that is controversial about universal healthcare is that America does not have it. The idea that a Democratic president with substantial Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress might fail to pass healthcare reform, well, that's enough to make anyone crazy.
By Gary Younge:
Reprinted with permission from The Nation.
 | If you like this article, check out www.thenation.com for more investigative reports, timely editorials and incisive columns |
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- Who voted for Obama? If it turns out he got on the ballot by fraud and ignorance, can you prove you were damaged financially? Ask your lawyer.
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- Nobody in their right mind, can honestly believe those outrageous lies being spread around. especially after being proven wrong. These people are just hard core Republicans, sticking to their base and doing what their leaders tell them. They will say or do whatever it takes to stay in this high society club. That's why they change their story when ever you call them out. They want the control no matter the cost to civilization. They're the most unreasonable self indulged humanistic group on this planet.
These wacko groups keep talking about socialism and most don't even know what it means.
By the way the Republicans help big corporations monopolize, you could say the Republican party is communism. (Definition: a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.) Sound familiar? That's right Republican lies, and refusing to find common ground on anything. They want it there way or no way. Together we stand divided we fall! - Reply to this comment
- Younge produced his credentials when he said the Cold War was based on lies. I don't think the people of Eastern Europe thought it was lies nor did Winston Churchill when he wasrned of an iron curtain decending on Europe. Younge is part of a rare breed, an apologist for Stalin.
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- Assume government run health care and a public option are dead issues. There is still no solution to the health care dilemma. Republicans and Democrats have dragged the health care debate into the weeds. They are tiptoeing around the elephant in the room -- the health insurance companies, who are the fly in the ointment. They don't compete. They exist to make as much money as they can, not to lower costs. No one really think we need 8 giant health insurance companies, a hundred small insurance companies and multi-millionaire bean counters just to collect premiums, carve out 30% for administrative costs and profits and pay the medical bills. That is more like an arbitrage business. The only real solution to significantly lower health care costs for everyone without affecting quality care, provide money to train doctors, greatly reduce premiums, afford to cover the uninsured, stop rationing and rejection of payments and inject real market competition into health care for the first time is a PRIVATE single payer system run by an independent commission. It is the only fiscally responsible, common sense, business approach. Let the commission award a contract to the lowest bidder to pay the medical bills for a fixed fee with no right to make decisions or reject payment. Let it hire a staff to negotiate down prices of vendors, suppliers and providers by making them compete against each other. Doctor and hospital fees will be subject to market forces, not government mandates, because patients can switch from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital at the drop of a hat. Why is this simple solution kept under the table? Because Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, get huge campaign financing from the health care industry, have too many friends and influential contacts in the industry, members of Congress are exempt from whatever health care plan they enact for all of us whose taxes pay for their health care and those opposed to single payer have been led to believe it means government run health care while proponents of single payer have been led to believe government run health care is the only way to achieve it. And why have the conservative and liberal television talk shows avoided any discussion of this solution? Are all these groups just interested in a political agenda for the 2010 elections? Want to be the party to earn the political legacy of having solved the health care dilemma? Let go of the insurance company connection and be the party that wins the legacy for 2010. See more at my blog at jscopegmailcom-jscope.blogspot.com/
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- Gary,
Did you not know that a "certificate of live birth" is not the same as a "birth Certificate"? You can't even use a "certificate of live birth" to join the Little League. If you have a copy of Obama's 'birth certificate".....please show us a copy. Please send me a copy as well.
You can't?..........because it doesn't exist....he wasn't even born here.
I DARE YOU TO PRODUCE a "birth certificate".....hmmmmm? - Reply to this comment
- THE ONLY THINK DUMBER THEN A REPUBLI'CON' IS A LIBERTARIAN
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- Our leaders without or unable to express their own opinions or maybe unable to render an intelligent opinion, spewing drivel pumped out by both parties by fax each morning, no independent thinkers, no creativity, only followers. The leaders picked by the voting population shows how shallow the thought processes employed by the masses in choosing any leader. People who have painted their own backs and those of their friends, gone on to greener pastures with their new high contacts in government or business. Positions from which net worth can be created. One must ask how a simple person going into an elected position without much net worth can suddenly have over just a few years multiple a good salary and benefits in to tens of millions?
Our leaders, men and women who cannot under any circumstance even think reducing spending might be an option. Where is the outcry? Are we so mired in our own morass we close the eyes to the nation's wealth being flushed down the toilet, to indenture future generations with our own greed? - Reply to this comment
- Not one republican or democrat has come to the forefront suggesting a reduction in spending; only a reduction in debt, implying a tax increase. No wonder anyone is having a hard time trying to identify with the republican party, it is ethereal. Reaching out to grab the latest news from the GOP finding only a vapor, listening to talk radio for fast breaking news which might stir the conservative base, craning my neck to see if there are other conservatives dissatisfied with the status quo. Old rich men who do not read bills, not senate seats, but senate institutions, institutions who write the senator's questions, write the legislation, read the opposition material only to have prepared questions read like a 10 year old reading college material regurgitated by the titular head of the institution.
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- These morons are actually AGAINST the government trying to take us out of the Bushoccio Depression. How embarrassing this is for America.
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- CONSERVATIVES AND THEIR REPUBLICAN LEMMINGS HAVE BECOME ANTI AMERICAN
FASCISTS, WHERE DO YOU GUYS THINK THE 'KKK' WENT, DID YOU THINK THEY
JUST PACKED UPO AND DISAPPEARED? THEY BECAME THE NEW BASE OF THE
REPUBLI'CON' PARTY AND THE CONSERVATIVE WING OF AMERICAN POLITICS.
AND YOU CAN NOT ARGUE A POINT WITH PEOPLE THAT DO NOT REQUIRE THE
FACTS TO SUPPORT THEIR POSITION, IN FACT, THEY ARE NOTHING BUT LIARS - Reply to this comment
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- Oh, I do so love these kinds of comments. They just reaffirm my belief that the left is so caught up in its own ideology and hate that it would not be out of place alongside the aluminum-foil-hat brigade.
The more foolish the left's postions, the easier to refute and overcome them.
Keep it up, gang!
- Oh, I do so love these kinds of comments. They just reaffirm my belief that the left is so caught up in its own ideology and hate that it would not be out of place alongside the aluminum-foil-hat brigade.
- Universal health care is the ONLY way we can save out economy and enter the civilized world.
Where were all these anti-government right wing wackos when the Bush Crime Family was starting all these wars and doubling the deficit? - Reply to this comment
- The right wingnuts seem to feel entitled after ruining this country for 8 long horrible years during the bush/dark cheney administration! They're mad that the majority of this country sees through their lies and rhetoric. They have chosen to sink to new lows and pond scum actions. They have resorted to wallowing in the mud and dirt and slime that their party now represents!
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- This article is laughable. It is a propaganda piece masquerading as analysis. Of course, the fact that the author is associated with "The Nation" is a good tipoff. Reality is not known to often stalk the pages of "The Nation." Not to mention that an article like this is the kind of silliness that "The Guardian" favors.
If the left truly wanted to find a way to counter those of us on the right (yes! I am a conservative! So by lefty definition I must be one of those wild-eyed, unreasoning, uniformed right wingnuts--so now you my orientation), they would try to analyze what we do without looking at things through their deeply pink-tinted glasses. And quit demonizing us as siply right wingnuts, or worse.
But, those on the left are not going to do so. For which I am just as glad. If the left ever managed to stumble into dispassionate analysis, they might be even more dangerous than they are.
To those on the left: Please keep looking at those of us on the right as nothing more than illiterate, non-thinking right-wing nutcases (after all, I am sure you on the left must ask yourselves, and assure one another, who else could hold opinions opposed to the received opinions of the politically correct, group-thinking left?). Please urge your leaders, such as Nancy Pelosi, to keep demonizing (and thus outraging) ordinary American citizens. Please keep living in your fantasy world. - Reply to this comment
- by carrd75961:
"Everyone of us know, when you run out of money stop writeing checks."
"Free trade, remember that, it works."
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Yeah...yeah...yeah...blah...blah...blah...same old, same old....
The UNHINGED RIGHTWADS need a completely new game plan, since the old, tired conservitard policies and ideology that America has been embracing for the past 30 years, has been proven utterly insane!
It was "ronnie the rat" raygun that TRIPLED our national debt by saying that "deficits didn't matter," and writing those checks after running out of MONEY!
It was the busheviks that DOUBLED our national debt by waging endless WARS, signing DRUG BILLS, and giving the keys to the U.S. Treasury to the wealthiest Americans and corporate elite.....just more of that insanity called BORROW and SPEND by writing more rubber checks!
Yeah.....and we all know now exactly how "FREE TRADE" and that insane DE-REGULATION/LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY worked out for Americans during the past 8 years, giving us the financial meltdown of the bush/cheney Great Recession of 2007-2009!
PULEEZE, stop with the old, tired, conservitard rhetoric! - Reply to this comment
- The Republican Party has a MAJOR Problem here and if they do NOT address is and soon it will destroy what little there is left of their party. It has been know for a long time and Bush PROVED it beyond a doubt that you can use hate and division to win elections. The problem is you can't govern at that point. There are people out there trying to use the TENTH Amendment to refuse to go along with Health Reform!! The SAME 10th Amendment and the SAME argument for it used in 1850!! All the blood lost and all the suffering the nation went through both then and on through 1960 on that very issue? Just pretend it never happened I guess. It's very dangerous to our Country and it is deadly to the Republican Party!
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- Look at the ages of these people -- all products of late 1940s and 50s -- the golden age of McCarthyism . . .
And the same folks who were told, as youngsters, that listening to Elvis Presley would turn them into communist n***er-lovers (that's what I was told).
It's a very simple question -- do we want to live in the 21st century . . . or the 19th? . . . or, as some would argue, even further back than that. - Reply to this comment
- I bill Medicare. I've billed Medicaid. The waste, abuse and poorly run administration is beyond frustrating. I am informed in ways not available to the public or any Politician who does not deal with the conflicting rules and regulation of the these Government Programs that make no reasonable sense and are going Bankrupt. (I won't even talk about Social Security) Not even Pres.Obama can say HOW this new program will be paid for except getting rid of the waste -illogical and impossible. I can't support another government run program. I'm just a mom, who sees our government promising to save us from the evil insurance companies - HMMMMM.... I've dealt with both. Government is worse, far worse. Change is needed, I totally agree. But the whole idea of the Public Option (the FOREVER option), is to increase competition. So why not deregulate and let us cross state lines for insurance shopping? Fix pre-existing clauses, portability, etc. There are so many things that make logical sense before turning our health care over to the government. Once that power is turned over,and it is power, it will NEVER be returned, and the cost FOREVER passed to our children. I am more informed than this writer would admit.
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- I would guess you are one of those who seem to just want to throw MUD at all based on ONE small part. Question? Do you support your Congressman who voted TO KEEP MEDICARE and MEDICAID? You MUST because they all do. I LIVE with Medicare EVERY day of my life. I had Private Insurance the entire time I was employed and I can tell you without ANY doubt that I am FAR better off under Medicare. I no longer have to jump through hoops to go to a doctor I need. I no longer have to fool with or argue about treatment I may need and I do NOT have to spend HOURS on a phone begging to get a bill paid that should have been paid SIX MONTHS ago. I KNOW this PRESIDENT is the ONLY one who is willing to take on this problem and I KNOW the other party had time to call congress back in session to interfere in the personal business of a family in Florida but DID NOT have th time to address this issue. Now since we have but ONE Party willing to even TRY and since we finally have a President who is willing to take on the CEO's of the Insurance Business, maybe we should move ahead. Will it be perfect of course not. Will it have things that need to be addressed, of course it will, that's called being HUMAN. It's a lead pipe cinch that if we sit by and allow folks like you talk us into doing NOTHING we will ALL suffer as we did EVERY TIME before.
- Private insurance companies are also corrupt, my experience says Gov't is worse - Abuse, fraud, and over spending. If a private company has these problems they go out of business. If the government has abuse, fraud and overspends, they place the burden on ME, the tax payer.
Every day we make choices with the resources we have. Do you spend more than you earn? Some people do, the Gov't surely does. Want great benefits, little risk of being fired, all paid Holidays, great medical-dental coverage, retirement? Get a Government Job. All paid by the average American taxpayer. Want to help your country? Quit it. When is the burden to much for us (taxpayer) to heavy? 50-60% or is 80-90% of income ok? When is it reasonable that I should stand up and say "NO MORE" the burden is to heavy!?!
Politicians come and go... but ENTITLEMENTS stay forever, I am not thinking of myself but my children and generations to come. The deficit is staggering, does it not concern you?
We are ever becoming a society of entitlements, give me, and I deserve. Generations are taught to "USE" the system, they "DESERVE" it. I am all for helping,but not for those to have a HAMMOCK. It is SELF RESPONSIBILITY we must learn and teach our children.. We cannot always turn to our government (neighbors pocket) it will surely BANKRUPT this great country.
I serve my Lord, my community, donate time & money to charities, live in a "green" home. I try each day to lighten someones load. I do not rely on the Gov't for my retirement although I've paid into it for 30years, I save daily. I teach my children to save and prepare for college, emergencies and to serve others.
Adding another "Entitlement" to the ones we can't pay for now, is a mistake. Mend the system now, don't turn it over to the Gov't, it'll just end up be another bankrupt program.
- It takes considerable skill to convince people that something that is clearly good for them--like universal healthcare--is not.
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It's not all that tough when you're dealing with people willing to let others do their thinking for them.... - Reply to this comment
- Brianbwb-2009, Go ahead and mention the name, I have never been booted by CBS.
Many people come to Thailand for Plastic Surgery, they are call medical tourist. Most Doctors I go to went to Medical school in the U.S. and Europe!
Cheers ! - Reply to this comment
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- by kikomanson:
"Many people come to Thailand for Plastic Surgery, they are call medical tourist. Most Doctors I go to went to Medical school in the U.S. and Europe!"
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Yep....unlike the UNHINGED RIGHTWADS that keep delusionally calling the U.S. health care system "the best in the world," despite its 37th ranking, many 'thinking' republican'ts see health care reform as a much needed necessity!
Today, the most innovative health care is being done in places like India, by doctors that went to school in the U.S. -- not here!
- by kikomanson:
- I am sorry but I have to speak out. This faux conservatism has no legitimacy at all. To say that the shifty left waste our money and get all bent out of shape when Obama wants to spend 900B on the American people is just too rich. It was only a 9 short months ago when GW vacated the office that he held for 8 years. During most of that time his party held the senate, the congress and the courts. What did republicans do? Only take our national debt from 5 trillion to 13 trillion dollars. Let's give bush a blank check to squander on tax cuts for his rich buddies and an illegal war that he himself went on record and stated had nothing to do with 911. Then let him give the fed the chance to spend trillions of our dollars to bail out the banks with no accounting whatsoever. Now Obama wants to spend less than a trillion dollars on our citizens as opposed to the people of Iraq or say the rich contractors such as Blackwater and KB&R and you guys say "wait a minute that's our money your spending." Under bush all this country did is spend money. We have absolutely nothing to show for this bleeding of our wealth, lots of destroyed lives, thousands of dead American soldiers, and millions more homeless and impoverished. Why aren't you shouting at your own party "Where did the money go?"
The author is right this is a masterful deception that would have conservatives screaming out against their own best interest. You have no credibility and no shame. - Reply to this comment
The road ahead in Afghanistan, and the crucial decision Obama faces.
