Remember back to those halcyon days of 2005, when, in the wake of George W. Bush’s historic reelection (never before in U.S. history had the son of an President won a majority of the popular vote in his own bid for the White House or been elected to a second term) and those protesting his policies showed such civility and respect, unlike, say, the gun-toting loonies who gather today to protest his successor’s statist solutions to all manner of problems.
Back then, it was only grannies and others who had never previously protested along with a diverse group of everyday folk who took to the streets on their own steam to take issue with an out-of-touch Administration:
In the crowd: young activists, nuns whose anti-war activism dates to Vietnam, parents mourning their children in uniform lost in Iraq, and uncountable families motivated for the first time to protest.
Connie McCroskey, 58, came from Des Moines, Iowa, with two of her daughters, both in their 20s, for the family’s first demonstration. McCroskey, whose father fought in World War II, said she never would have dared protest during the Vietnam War.
But, today, save the AP’s Erica Werner (and a few others), when the MSM turns their attention to the rallies, they focus not on the grannies (of whom they are very, very, very, very many) protesting the President’s proposed healthcare overhaul) and others taking to the streets for the first time, but the loony-toon-toons, of whom there are a few.
As anybody who has ever participated in a political organization or cause can tell you, there are always a handful of loony-toon-toons.
Back in 1995, when I took the environmental activist Democrat I was dating to a Republican event, he commented how the make-up was exactly like that of liberal events he had attended, a diverse mix of folk, with a share of, well, crackpots. We didn’t do a scientific survey so could not determine whether my side or his had a greater percentage of crackpots, but they were there–and very often, the friendliest of the lot.
Had the media covered the 2005 anti-Iraq War rallies as they cover the anti-Obamacare rallies, they would have written much about the socialist ideology of the sponsoring organization, pointing out that many left-wing groups were bussing in their acolytes and showing, not bespectacled grannies in comfortable clothes wearing sensible hats to protect them from the sun, but angry leftists with hateful T-shirts, hoisting colorful placards depicting the then-President as Hilter and his supporters as goose-stepping Nazis.
Last week was Congressman Adam Schiff’s town hall. I was there with many others showing our opposition to the president’s plans. You know who the local NBC affiliate had as one on “our” side? A Lyndon LaRouche nut job. First of all, LaRouche has ran as a D E M O C R A T! Yet they have made LaRouche and his robots “right wingers”. Far from being right wingers. They are loon-wingers. These are the idiots running around with the President Obama-as Adolf Hitler photos. They are discrediting those of us who oppose the president’s health care reform scam. But, we have to keep going. At some point, even the Obamawhore media will have to face the reality that the opposition to President Obama is coming from everyday Americans-not a bunch of Lyndon LaRouche creeps.
So, according to the site you link to, this one organization was sole responsible for organizing anti-war protests? hmmmmm. I’d find it more credible if you found this information in a place like factcheck.org and not a site that is very clear about its anti-left agenda.
The background of the groups that back the anti-healthcare reform movement always to track back to groups that are 100% funded by for profit insurance companies, hmo’s, etc. Boy, they have a huge amount of money to lose if a not-for-profit option actually gave them competition. Please show me some kind of proof showing that these rank and file citizens have actually given money to this “cause”. Calling this movement grassroots is akin to calling the protestors of the FL recount a “grassroots” movement: my favorite being the picture identifying “protestors” as Republican staff people flown in for the “protest”
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blfloridagopmob.htm
And let’s not get into the very qualified reach at historic importance….was it followed by the most quickly tanking approval ratings?
Um, Kevin, where did I say International A.N.S.W.E.R. was the sole organization responsible for the anti-war rallies? I called it the sponsoring organization–which it was for many of the major rallies.
Um, those for-profit insurance companies you’re getting upset about are helping fund the President’s side in this debate.
It’s amazing how committed you are to smearing this movement. Just go look at the people, read the article Erica Werner wrote and remove your blinders. And stop relying on left-wing blogs and the left-leaning MSM for your source of information. You have zerio evidence, ZERO, to back up your claim that this is not a grassroots movement and yet you repeat this mantra as if it were gospel truth–as if the legitimacy of our concerns would vanish if you kept repeating your chant long enough.
Why do you have this incredible need to dismiss our concerns as non-legitimate? Is it that you are so upset by Obama’s rapidly tanking approval ratings. He started much higher than W and fell far more rapidly, without the media highlighting his failures.
Boy, they have a huge amount of money to lose if a not-for-profit option actually gave them competition.
Not-for-profit isn’t what worries them. There are already not-for-profit insurance companies.
Unfair competition in the form of a government monopoly that doesn’t have to pay taxes, doesn’t have to follow the same business regulations as they do, and can charge less in premiums than what claims actually cost because it can write off every loss to the taxpayers is what they’re concerned about.
Since the point is to encourage competition, I have a solution: exempt private health insurers from having to pay taxes and have the government rebate them the value of their administrative costs and any debt they incur, just as the “public plan” will do.
Now watch as Barack Obama and his sockpuppets like Kevin start whining and squealing about how “unfair” it would be that the private plans would enjoy the same advantages that the “public plan” will have.
The hilarity of Kevin’s comment is that he’s such an Obamabot he believes that the only way people would oppose Obama is if they were paid to do so. He simply cannot even entertain the possibility that people could disagree with Obama.
#2: “Please show me some kind of proof showing that these rank and file citizens have actually given money to this “cause”.”
In Kevin’s world, a guy holding a pre-printed sign designed by a PR firm who can’t tell you that it says “Healthcare Reform Now!” because he only speaks Spanish, is a grassroots, freedom-loving American patriot standing up for his beliefs (curiously, during the same month that Craigslist was loaded with offers of $15 per hour for people willing to “work for change”).
In contrast, a 70 year old woman holding a sign made with magic markers protesting Obamacare is presumptively an eeeeevil corporate stooge unless and until she can produce a receipt showing that she made some kind of financial contribution to the “cause” of opposing Obamacare (and the receipt must be authenticated and admissible in a court of law). In Kevin’s world, exercising Constitutional rights is free for liberals, but for conservatives, there’s an entry fee.
P.S. Liberals and their “standards.” Remember, the “double” is always silent.
I watched the beginning of last Sunday’s Meet the Press and almost took out my shotgun and destroyed my TV. I could not believe that Howdy Dodie, the new moderator, was such a jerk. I am sure that Tim Russert is turning over in his grave.
#2
Citation Needed for the whole comment.
4/5 – Do you ever put up a post here without name-calling? You really are intellectually bankrupt if all you can do is spout name-calling against people with whom you don’t agree.
You all get a bit uptight when people are questioning the basis for resistance to changing the broken health care system in this country. False claims have been made again and again about these system (the death panel comment from she-who-must-not-be-named was priceless) and debunked. Politically, scaring old people has been a good tactic and it’s working again – but not as good as it used to; I love the few bits I’ve seen where folks have been asked to tell them where the death panel thing appears in the bill and funny enough, they can’t tell you – their organizers told. fun.
Broken health care system, Kevin? Imperfect perhaps, but poll after poll has shown that a supermajority of Americans are satisfied with their plans.
Yep, interesting how you use the passive to say false claims have been made, given how many have been made by he who may only be criticized by those paid to do so.
False claims have been made again and again about these system and debunked.
For example:
You all get a bit uptight when people are questioning the basis for resistance to changing the broken health care system in this country.
Thank you.
Politically, scaring old people has been a good tactic and it’s working again – but not as good as it used to;
Yes. You libs are up to your usual tricks, but it’s not working. People aren’t keen on eating your shit sandwiches anymore.
I love the few bits I’ve seen where folks have been asked to tell them where the death panel thing appears in the bill and funny enough, they can’t tell you
Citation Needed.
I love it when liberals swear up and down, the State Run Media runs many Op-Eds, that it didn’t exist. Yet somehow, they managed to remove what didn’t exist from the HR.
Tell me, do you ever get dizzy to they point you throw up? Do you keep a bucket handy for after you post your nonsense?
STILL waiting for your evidence showing the eeeevil insurance companies are paying people to oppose the beloved Obama, the most holy.
Any day now…..
Waiting on you, Kevin.
Do you ever put up a post here without name-calling? You really are intellectually bankrupt if all you can do is spout name-calling against people with whom you don’t agree.
LOL…you mean like your Pelosi and Reid and Barack Obama, who are shrieking that people who oppose Obamacare are racists, Nazis, evil-mongers, and astroturfers?
We all understand why you want a fatter welfare check, Kevin. But what you’re seeing now is that people are doing what your parents should have done and insist that you work for a living rather than sponging off others.