Paul Krugman: “The Town Hall Mob”
I could not agree more with Paul Krugman’s latest NY Times column:
There’s a famous Norman Rockwell painting titled “Freedom of Speech,” depicting an idealized American town meeting. The painting, part of a series illustrating F.D.R.’s “Four Freedoms,” shows an ordinary citizen expressing an unpopular opinion. His neighbors obviously don’t like what he’s saying, but they’re letting him speak his mind.
That’s a far cry from what has been happening at recent town halls, where angry protesters — some of them, with no apparent sense of irony, shouting “This is America!” — have been drowning out, and in some cases threatening, members of Congress trying to talk about health reform.
The misinformation, paranoia, and outright lies around health care reform have become poisonous and destructive. As if the “Kill Granny” crap wasn’t enough, now we’ve got Sarah Palin enlightening us on how Obama’s “downright evil system” will kill the elderly and her baby with Down Syndrome using “death panels.” Utterly incredible.
Our political discourse is once again being thrown off the tracks by shameless, lying blowhards and uninformed mobs. Making significant changes to the health care system is no joke. It can and should invite tough questions and vigorous debate. But what’s happening at these health care town hall meetings is disgraceful and, yes, undemocratic.
Dave Winer (@davewiner) sums it up perfectly (if a bit coarsely) on Twitter:
People who have “dissenting views” of course have a right to speak. And after you’ve spoken, sit down and shut the fuck up.
I heartily agree, and I would believe this just as strongly if it were a bunch of Democratic thugs shouting down Republican lawmakers.
We all need to do our homework on health care reform and get involved in an honest and productive debate, regardless of our political stripes. Here are some places to start…
It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people. And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait, Medicare and Medicaid and our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown and Katrina but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.
How does shouting down to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots. How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a lynch mob advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.
I totally agree, I do not know why there is no outrage on lack of health care in the most advanced country? Is do nothing a better alternative? Also why lack of a civil dialog? Mobbing and shouting is not going to solve any problems..