by Scott Creighton
Just a few weeks ago I was starting to have a little “hope”. Just a little. Don’t go crazy.
I was witnessing what I thought must have been some kind of waking daydream; pseudo “progressive” blogs actually starting to reject the Obama healthcare plan and pressing openly for real single payer healthcare.
I was amazed. AfterDowningStreet, Op Ed News, DailyKos, and even, believe it or not… the Huffington Post actually carried articles seriously critical of HR 3200 and the senate versions of the Obamacare plan.
Obama’s and Rahm’s hopes of fulfilling their promise to the insurance lobbyists was about to take a dive – not because of the opposition from the “Right” but because of the dissent from the “Left”.
But then along came “the crazies” and now it seems Obamacare is saved.
What a coincidence.
Just a few short weeks ago, “Progressive” sites were delving into secretive meetings at the White House between insurance company insiders, Big Pharma, and Rahm Emanuel. Meetings that seem to be of national security interest to the White House for some reason, like Cheney’s energy task force meetings once were.
“Progressives” were angry because it seemed the Public Option was going to be watered down so much that it wouldn’t serve and real purpose other than as a dumping ground for poor people (and even THAT they still had to “buy into” it). That is even IF it wasn’t turned into a co-op for the insurance industry.
“Progressives” were angry at the provisions in the bill that FORCED people to buy insurance from private insurance companies, having to pay whatever they were told to pay.
“Progressives” were angry at the thought that those with current benefits may actually have to pay an income tax on policies provided by their employer.
“Progressives” were angry that talk of tax increases on the middle class (yes people, those below 250k per year as well) wasn’t being completely dismissed by the White House.
And thus, “Progressive” sites were allowing their writers to delve into the uncharted waters of open, meaningful Obama dissent for the first time… and the congress and the White House actually took notice.
Hell, Michael Moore was promoting David Swanson’s Single Payer Summer efforts on the front page of his website just a week ago…. now you go to AfterdowningStreet and guess what? Not one article about healthcare since yesterday or the day before. Michael has some front page article about Obama “faking out” the evil “republicans” (a “basketball” analogy for the first black president? come on, Michael…) and giving the people what they want… his corporate biased mandatory insurance coverage plan. A payday for the insurance industry.
Yeah Michael. That’s really what we want.
Why the switch? What happened to all that “progressive” opposition to the Obamacare plan?
Well, “The Crazies” killed it. That’s what.
The insurance companies and their friends in the DLC ladened White House and congress recognized that the dissent was taking hold in the left, so they needed to demonize the talking points… demonize the critics of Obamacare. And that is exactly what they have done.
It’s real simple actually. Get the phony rightwing zealots like Malkin, Lindbaugh, and Beck to go out and whip up a silly frenzy. Get them the exact same ridiculous talking points to drill into the heads of their “ditto heads” (say it’s “socialism” or “communism” or Maoism or some such nonsense… say it’s the end of freedom as we know it… tell them it’s the end of the world if the guy from Kenya (wink wink) gets to pull the plug on Granny), then tell the ditto-heads where all the town hall meetings are, and see what happens.
(actually, they did the EXACT same thing when people were getting really angry about the corrupt bankers and the Federal Reserve. Along comes Glenn Beck’s “conversion” to the dissenters side, and he busied himself weeping his crocodile tears and ranting about conspiracy theories until no one took any of the Audit the Fed movement seriously anymore. Remember that folks? Wasn’t that long ago you know.)
Then to turn up the heat a bit more, get some phony “grass roots” organization to put up a snazzy blog that practically incites riots… and sit back with CNN and MSNBC cameras rolling… and let nature take it’s course.
What is the result?
Anyone that is critical of Obamacare is an instant “crazy” and POOF! the articles on the left wing websites are immediately gone. Now all of a sudden, those voices from the left with genuine concerns about the bill are silent. Now all of a sudden, Obamacare IS single payer…. Obamacare WASN’T written by insurance industry insiders… Obamacare is ALL ABOUT helping the “little guy”.
What a crock of shit.
It couldn’t be more obvious if Beck, Malkin, and Rush were reading from a script that had DLC written on the back of it for the cameras to see.
Right on cue, along comes the pundits of the “progressive” left to take up the call of demonizing dissenters of the Obamacare plan. Op Ed News has several of them, Dailykos, Huffington Post, and of course the Keith Olbermanns, Mathews, and Maddows of the “All Obama All the Time” network are doing their part as well.
So now if you talk about the Obamacare plan as anything but the 21st century “New Deal” handed down by Jesus himself, you are just a selfish loonietunes right wing Nazi bastard.
I should have known. I once had a little glimmer of hope… and then there was none.
Barack “Hopekiller” Obama strikes again.
Barack Obama a “socialist”? Well, at least his writers have a sense of humor.
I gotta go get a third job so I can afford that insurance policy that will deny me treatments and dump me when I really need it.
Thanks a lot, crazies.
Filed under: Economic Crisis ie. Disaster Capitalism, Scott Creighton, single payer healthcare Tagged: | Obama Healthcare plan, Obamacare is a fraud, Phony crazies at healthcare forums
FYI Flash: Tommorrow night, Thursday Aug 13 6:30 pm Rep. Kathy Castor is having a telephone town hall on healthcare. Info at http://castor.house.gov
Call in: (877) 229-8493 or (877) 269-7289 PIN: 13964 and lets’ ask her: Why not take some of the $636 billion that we spend on defense to keep Al Qaeda from destroying our economy and bombing us in our tents and instead spend it on a single payer healthcare instead of an employer based system where 1 or 6 are out of work?
now that’s a damn good idea. I’m all over it. remind me in tomorrow night, would ya.
With you Scott. It’s a bag of bs. I gotta deal with the rx bs daily. It’s a crock of merde. Even my pcp, a former airforce doc totally agrees with me. He works at a local clinic for poor folks like myself because he’s a true “health giver.” When we have our bimonthly appts, we spend most of the time bashing the insurance companies. There’s some great docs out there who are hamstrung by the bureaucratic bullshit. True health givers suffer as much as meager recipients such as myself. I’ve got a lotta good friends in the medical field, and they all feel the same way. The insurance companies are rapacious, insidiously greedy, and don’t give one flying fuck about us or our health. It’s all about making money… and fuck the under insured – they can just go be statistics for all they care. I’m only alive because I have little tolerance for bs and a street fighter. I only encourage others to get tough too. Whatever it takes.
Oh yeh, Willy. Thanks for the good fight! I’m with you all the way. (And hopefully not to the fema camps
Reminds me in a way of 2000, when Bolton and his crew of crazies went down to Florida to ‘help’ with the recount, and Gore just melted away–except that Gore had people behind him, ready to fight, and he just left them there, scratching their heads.
Lighter version of the same thing happened with Kerry, in ’04 Ohio.
Then, we had them out there last year, calling everyone else crazy who didn’t want Obama.
The Crazies rule these times, one way or another.
R Ap
[...] Scott’s article here: http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/how-the-crazies-silenced-critics-on-the-left-and-saved-o… What was real propaganda though, even far beyond what big fat Limbaugh was doing, is how the Big [...]
It’s Thursday, Aug 13, 5:55pm and Rep. Castor’s Healthcare Telephone Town Hall appears to still be on at 6:30 pm as I said above: http://castor.house.gov
Also, there is an online poll at: http://wedu.org/ftw
where single payer is running 2nd to Obama’s plan. All I have is my land-line touch telephone, so I don’t know if I can hold it to my ear for 2 hours, so I’m hoping others will try to call in. Thanks, Ron K.
I’m sorry to say that Rep. Kathy Castor’s http://castor.house.gov telephone town hall on healthcare was a dissapointing one hour propaganda session, to me at least, and made me wish that it was us single payers causing commotion at town halls and makes me now really want to see Obamacare go down in flames. But I did leave a polite voicemail, and I hope you will too, or contact her, and urged her support for HR 676. I stressed that we are starting from scratch with a failed employer based system where one out of 6 are out of work, this in response to her’s and Obama’s rehearsed line about starting from scratch. She seems to think or want you to believe that people don’t have health insurance because they are not being “personally responsible.” Again, I told her that we could take some of the $636 billion that we spend on defense, keeping Al Qaeda from destroying our economy and bombing us in our tents, repeal the bush tax cuts for the rich bank executives we bailed out (what’s their personal responsibility) and pay for single payer, where we choose our doctor, the gov’t pays the bills, with no bureaucrats. And now, for crying out loud, what in the hell does having car insurance and having health insurance have anything to do with each other, PLEASE?!! If you don’t own a car, you don’t have to have car insurance, right? So does that mean, if I sell my car, stay inside when it’s cold and raining, don’t play with sharp objects or matches, don’t eat too many twinkies or drink too many sodas, then I don’t have to buy car insurance or health insurance either one? What gives on that? Oh well, thanks and later. Ron K.
Ron;
Wish I could say I am surprised. It seems to me that aside from being an opportunity to display the “crazies” and thereby discredit criticism of the Obamacare plan, the whole thing is just a talking-point programing session.
Your right, the White House is giving them the talking points and they are going out into the meetings, repeating them to the masses. And in turn, they will repeat them, like the gospels to their friends and coworkers whenever possible.
This is the core of groupthink. Might as well be a daily session in an auditorium watching a screen with Big Brother handing down the policy himself.
I admire your hopefulness. I envy it really. But these people don’t give a shit about your messages or your input. If they did, they wouldn’t have passed the TARP Bill nor the FISA bill… two of the most universally rejected and despised bills to pass in recent memory. Record numbers of calls and emails meant nothing. Nothing compared to what the banks wanted. Nothing compared to what the telecoms wanted.
And now the insurance company wants the next best thing to a completely privatized healthcare system…
Next stop… Social Security