Nancy Pelosi - Un-American Attacks Can't Derail Health Care - Translation

by the Left Coast Rebel

From an op-ed co-authored with Steny Hoyer, in USA Today here, Nancy Pelosi, the gift that keeps on giving to the Left Coast Rebel, manna from heaven on the demagoguery, corruption, free-speech suppression hailing from Washington today. First the swastika charge against health care protesters, today we have a different charge thrown at folks opposed to the current health care proposals.

The charge of being so-called un-American.

Pelosi and Hoyer writing in the piece - "From President Lyndon Johnson to President Bill Clinton, to President Obama's winning campaign on the promise of reform, there hasn't been a more debated domestic issue than the promise of affordable health care for all."

(Fair enough, at least they are putting it in proper terms, health care for all, ie. Universal health care. That is the end-goal after all, right?)

Continuing - "We believe it is healthy for such a historic effort to be subject to so much scrutiny and debate. The failure of past attempts is a reminder that health insurance reform is a defining moment in our nation's history....in the meantime, as members of Congress spend time at home during August, they are talking with their constituents about reform. The dialogue between elected representatives and constituents is at the heart of our democracy and plays an integral role"....

Meat and potatoes, my take in bold - "However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign, (read, dissent) is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings, (read peacefully protest), and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue, ( marginalize your foes, Saul Alinsky).....These tactics have included hanging in effigy....and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, (again, marginalize peaceful citizens),.....these disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American."

And there you have it, current events today are stranger than banana-republic fiction. I beg to differ, of course. Dissent is patriotic. I did several searches and couldn't find much on the 'effigy' or the 'tombstone', ( I found this in reference here), I wonder if Soros emailed Steny and Pelosi these alleged pics? Moveon.org? Huffpo? Michael Moore?

And if they do exist, so what? Who cares? For every nut with a swastika, there are 10,000 folks that are simply concerned, afraid and peaceful. I do not condone the use of pseudo-violent protest messages on signs or such, neither do I think that it is ok to drown out debate during a town hall meeting. However it is simply fascistic, plain and simple, to charge all protesters as un-American. The fact that a few wackos may show up to protest as well does not equal guilt by association for all involved. It is those in Washington that want to ram an agenda that limits freedom and empowers the state that are un-American. It is those who simply refuse to read the bills that represent that agenda that are un-American. It is the crony, the earmarked piggy representative that has nothing but his crooked bottom line in mind that is un-American.

Some liberals agree with me here.

And speaking of the term un-American, wasn't the same tactic used by the Bush Administration here, here, here, re: surveillance, the war in Iraq, etc? Wasn't it fascistic when they did it? What makes this right for Pelosi to do this? Is it because it worked under Bush and Co.? Are they really so stupid as to not realize that stuff like this goes viral on the net and only makes concerned citizens even more angry? Really?

Censorship in any form; especially from Washington, is un-American.