Obama Democrats Claim their Critics Want to “Do Nothing”
The more I think about the lefties trashing John Mackey and launching a boycott of his chain of grocery stores, the more I see their antic as emblematic of a strain of leftism that has become increasingly more vocal these past few years and has come to all but dominate Democratic discourse.
It seems that they follow Saul Alinsky’s Twelfth Rule as if it were a biblical commandment:
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
Personalizing it allows them to ignore our ideas and focus on and then magnify flaws in our character so they can us by our imperfections.
Recall the unhappy Barney Franks “snit fit” when he stormed off the set when CNBC’s Mark Haines wouldn’t conform to his caricature of his critics as wanting to “do nothing”:
Seems the President has followed the mean-spirited Massachusetts Democrat is caricaturing his critics as wanting to “do nothing” declaring at his health care townhall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire:
Because the way politics works sometimes is that people who want to keep things the way they are will try to scare the heck out of folks and they’ll create bogeymen out there that just aren’t real.
As Diana Furchtgott-Roth notes (or as anyone who checks the Cato Institute’s website is aware), Republicans (and libertarians) are not the bogeymen of Obama’s (and Barney’s) imagination: “Those who oppose the House Democrats’ $1 trillion health bill, supported by Mr. Obama, have offered specific legislative alternatives.“ She discusses two such proposals.
This is not the only time the President has claimed that while opposing his proposals, his critics prefer doing nothing, a claim which makes him incredibly dishonest or incredibly ignorant. Dishonest if he knows of the alternatives and acts if as they don’t exist. Ignorant that he is unaware of alternatives to his approach.
And neither is a quality we would wish the President of the United States to have.
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How about crafty, because he knows the MSM will parrot his allegations and most Americans will buy it.
The MSM has REALLY failed to do their job with this guy. Maybe they’re trying to make up for overdoing it with Bush?
Comment by polly — August 23, 2009 @ 8:28 am - August 23, 2009
Oh, polly. Would that it were so…
Tort Reform is a universally acknowledged component to bring healthcare costs back down to earth. Yet, isn’t even mentioned even if only to breezily discard it.
The American public has lost a lot of faith in this team and they aren’t helping their cause with such transparent rhetorical tricks.
Best wishes,
-MFS
Comment by MFS — August 23, 2009 @ 8:41 am - August 23, 2009
Sadly, for them, Doing Nothing is a better option than what they propose. So, if the choice really is between their “fix” and Doing Nothing. . . Doing Nothing wins out by a mile as the better choice. And most of the American Public knows this.
“You got a head ache?”
dem solution: Hammer your toes with a ten pounder
“Got a paper cut on a finger?”
dem solution: Amputation! At the shoulder…
I think doing nothing is just fine. . . .compared to the stupid ideas from these morons.
But hey, as VK pointed out to the troll turd, we got plenty of ideas to fix things, they are just being ignored.
Comment by JP — August 23, 2009 @ 8:43 am - August 23, 2009
Just like gillie.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 23, 2009 @ 9:13 am - August 23, 2009
Dishonest and not very bright. He has been caught in his web of lies. Even as he struggles, he attempts to spin more, but he is only entangling himself and those near him. We can now see his silk strings, and can more easily avoid them.
Comment by Ray — August 23, 2009 @ 9:31 am - August 23, 2009
I think you’re wrong, MFS. Obama did mention tort reform, though I only saw it once. He summarily dismissed that possibility because “that would hurt patients who were harmed by malpractice.” Period, end of story, no need to discuss it further. The only thing he didn’t say was, “It’s for the children.”
Come to think of it, since he’s saddling “the children” with incredible, crippling debt, and quite likely chaos resulting from Government’s inability to fulfill all its promises, I think he’s not going to mention that ANYTHING he’s doing is “for the children.” Best not to even bring them up.
Personally, I’m glad I have no children and thus no grandchildren; I’ll try not to become too fond of any of my nieces and nephews or their children, or any of my friends’ children. My only stake in this game is my wish that freedom and capitalism, things that made America so incredibly successful, would survive. Increasingly it appears that this wish will not be granted.
Comment by polly — August 23, 2009 @ 9:37 am - August 23, 2009
At the latest healthcare rally, which I went to and wrote about on my blog, I talked to many Obamacare supporters. Every single one of them eventually said the lie that opponents ‘want to do nothing.’ So I would refute this, and talk about all of the proposals that opponents of Obamacare have put forth, and they would just put their hands over their ears and go ‘wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa’ until I was done talking, and then say ‘you only say no’ and I would tell them what I know about all the yes stuff that Republicans and conservatives are doing, and they’d say ‘wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa’ until I stopped talking and walked away.
Comment by A Conservative Teacher — August 23, 2009 @ 9:59 am - August 23, 2009
#7- are you sure that wasn’t, “Wee-wee-wee-wee”?
Comment by DaveP. — August 23, 2009 @ 10:00 am - August 23, 2009
Obama has clearly said that he is not going to even discuss the failed policies of the past that have gotten us into this mess.
Translation: If it is not in perfect sync with hopeandchange blather, or if it comes from the mouth of a Republican, it is part of the failed policies of the past that have gotten us into this mess.
Further translation: Oh ye of little faith, trust in me for I am the light and the way.
Translation of the further translation: It is not good to peeve the Messiah.
Comment by heliotrope — August 23, 2009 @ 11:17 am - August 23, 2009
Heliotrope: You left out the most important one…
Translation of the translation of the further translation: “Shut up. I won.”
This “my opponents want to do nothing” is the same schtick he used when selling that ridiculous “stimulus” plan.
It was a lie then, and it is a lie now.
Not one Republican is saying we should “do nothing”. Go to any of their websites, they all have alternative plans to offer.
The One just doesn’t want to hear them, discuss them, or even acknowledge their existence.
However, as it turns out with the stimulus debacle, doing nothing would have been preferable. Doing nothing now would be preferable to the outrageous nightmare O and his minions would shove down our throats.
So, maybe that “doing nothing” accusation won’t work too well for him this time.
We can hope.
Comment by jana — August 23, 2009 @ 11:42 am - August 23, 2009
Racist? LOL.
Best wishes,
-MFS
Comment by MFS — August 23, 2009 @ 1:57 pm - August 23, 2009
#10: “So, maybe that “doing nothing” accusation won’t work too well for him this time.”
You’re absolutely right, jana. Check out Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll currently posted above on this blog. Clearly, it ISN’T working.
Comment by Sean A — August 23, 2009 @ 2:19 pm - August 23, 2009
You should take the time to read this:
http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2009/08/a_must-read_dis.php
Comment by thestraightaussie — August 24, 2009 @ 12:40 am - August 24, 2009
Now what I want to know is why the Democrats refused to pass a Republican bill that was to reform healthcare prior to the Presidential election, and then turn around and say that Republicans want to do nothing….
Comment by thestraightaussie — August 24, 2009 @ 12:42 am - August 24, 2009
#10 and #12:
as with this, the people are realizing that even if Doing Nothing is the only other option for the Porkulous, it is better doing nothing than utilizing Obama’s plans (More are starting to wonder about just what true end goal those plans entail too).
Add the statements by the Administration claiming success and people look around at the carnage and wonder whether that carnage wasn’t the goal of the plan all along.
Comment by JP — August 24, 2009 @ 10:38 am - August 24, 2009
Liberals have lied and been telling half-truths … forever. What’s changed that’s gotten people riled up so? Is it the frightening magnitude of the proposals? Has the “alternative” media been far more successful in exposing and keeping those lies in the public’s mind? Can it be sour grapes over the election of a political radical to the highest office in the land?
Comment by DoorHold — August 24, 2009 @ 11:08 am - August 24, 2009
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