August 14, 2009

Anglican has some questions

And they seem like good ones to me:
"Some observations made of recent politics:
Liberals protest war, sometimes loudly, and are called traitors.
Conservatives protest health care, sometimes loudly, and are called patriots.
Those who benefit from the part of our system that is in fact socialized--i.e., Medicare and Medicaid--are fighting tooth and nail against extending a similar benefit to others.
Those opposing reform are putting their trust with the political party that opposed the creation of Medicare in the first place."

I like his walk through his socialized reality as well. I had a recent conversation on Facebook with an idiot (sorry, but true) who said that government is always abusive and that it rarely does anything good. I wish there were a way to instantly remove all the contributions of government from his life. I really do.

The stupid. It burns so very much.

4 comments:

steves said...

Liberals protest war, sometimes loudly, and are called traitors.
Conservatives protest health care, sometimes loudly, and are called patriots


It depends upon who is doing the labeling. Conservatives called liberals traitors or unpatriotic for protesting the war. Liberals thought that dissent was patriotic.

Liberals have thrown out some nasty phrases at conservatives, including fascists, "evil-mongers" (according to Harry Reid), "brown-shirts", and some state politician used terrorism to describe what they were doing. Obviously, conservatives feel they are being patriotic.

From where I stand, the vast majority of dissent is lawful and patriotic, evn if I don't agree with it.

Streak said...

But Steve, that is exactly Anglican's point. Conservatives have framed the discussion on the nature of dissent--from the Dixie Chicks to now the Town Hall idiots. I don't disagree, and don't think Anglican does either, that these idiots have the right to protest. But their motives are not exactly pure, and unfortunately their protest is based almost entirely on misinformation. Misinformation, btw, that the Republican party is more than willing to encourage. Shame on them.

steves said...

I have pointed that out to some conservatives when they complain about being "victims", but that also applies to those on the left who cry foul at the protests. While there is plenty of misinformation coming from the right, a quick perusal of FactCheck shows some coming from the left and that doesn't even include the plants and others pretending to protest with Nazi posters or posting fake death threats against the president. Then, there is level headed stuff like this and this. Nice.

I get that people like Palin playing the stupid card, but I am not convinced that many on the left want a two sided discussion on this topic or want to hear any disagreement.

Streak said...

I don't think it is fair to paint both sides with the same brush. It is hard to say that when the right is promoting outright lies, and the left is accused of disagreeable numbers. Where is the equivalent of the "death panel" on the left? There isn't.

Most liberals want health care reform, even if they don't get everything they want. Most conservatives, in my estimation, would prefer we not change the system--or they have been moved that way by the healthcare swiftboating.