In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition
Birthers, Town Hall Hecklers and the Return of Right-Wing Rage
   
By Rick Perlstein
Sunday, August 16, 2009

QuoteSo, crazier then, or crazier now? Actually, the similarities across decades are uncanny. When Adlai Stevenson spoke at a 1963 United Nations Day observance in Dallas, the Indignation forces thronged the hall, sweating and furious, shrieking down the speaker for the television cameras. Then, when Stevenson was walked to his limousine, a grimacing and wild-eyed lady thwacked him with a picket sign. Stevenson was baffled. "What's the matter, madam?" he asked. "What can I do for you?" The woman responded with self-righteous fury: "Well, if you don't know I can't help you."

The various elements -- the liberal earnestly confused when rational dialogue won't hold sway; the anti-liberal rage at a world self-evidently out of joint; and, most of all, their mutual incomprehension -- sound as fresh as yesterday's news. (Internment camps for conservatives? That's the latest theory of tea party favorite Michael Savage.)

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~~THE STUPID!  IT BURNS!!!!

=k

*^{Rolling On Floor Shrieking My @$$ Off}

What if they get programs mixed and you get cash for clunkers by trading your grand parents in for the new baby costs.

Often I view "Crazy" as a world wide general practice 

I know it's not my right to comment, but: (LORD I LOVE THAT LINE IT'S MY CUE )

I was totally amazed watching FOX USA news about seemingly intelligent people complaining that a "free" health service that would assist the underprivliged was a descent into a socialism and communism. No way to that! it's better to let people suffer than to help them. Sick.

Sorry Heatherrose, I'm going to re-state it: Americans are weird!!


Cindy

Quote from: Virginia Marie on August 16, 2009, 08:01:46 PM
Often I view "Crazy" as a world wide general practice 

Sometimes I think I'm the only sane person in a sea of crackpots.

Quote from: CindyJames on August 17, 2009, 04:08:40 AM
I know it's not my right to comment, but: (LORD I LOVE THAT LINE IT'S MY CUE )

I was totally amazed watching FOX USA news about seemingly intelligent people complaining that a "free" health service that would assist the underprivliged was a descent into a socialism and communism. No way to that! it's better to let people suffer than to help them. Sick.

Sorry Heatherrose, I'm going to re-state it: Americans are weird!!


Cindy

Yes, but you should be aware that FOX news is infamous for its' right-wing bias.  Still, I'll agree, there are certain factions of Americans, who always seem to make the biggest arses of themselves in the most public ways possible, that make me ashamed to show my passport when I travel outside the country.  Like our last President, for example ...

I don't even think its the majority, but there is a solid 20% that seems to be divorced from reality in many ways, and very vocal about it.

Just to add my 2 cent to this "americans are crazy" lark;
I was in accident and emergency (A&E) recently and this american gentlemen with a broken arm was talking with an elderly man about how Obama's health care was communist and evil and the old man turned around and calmly explained that Irish  healthcare has a free public option and thats what he was availing of. At this point the american man said it wasn't the same at all and started mumbling bout euthanasia when the doctor called him.
When he came back out (without the sling on his arm) the old man joked that public healthcare was so bad  that you come in with a scarf round your arm and all the doctors do is steal your scarf and tell you your ok.
Awful joke but the hypocrite got the point!

Also the town hall shouting seems comical from here

Claire xoxo

Well, speaking as a Pride-filled, Flag waiving; Red, white and blue; cut me and I bleed Constitution; died in the wool raised in the Great State of Montana; Oil consuming, steak eating, gun-toting, fan of Mom (Love ya mom), Apple pie and ..( um.. who owns Chevrolet again?).. ahem..  Capitalistic American of the United States variety.. who still gets tears in her eyes when Old Glory rises and at Taps in the cool evening air, whose last vacation included pilgrimage to Mount Rushmore (It's smaller than you would think -- Sturgis is better.), whose ancestors have occupied and loved this soil since the 1400s (Not including my Native American heritage.. which is far older in the land.. but we won't talk about that..) , who had family on both sides of the Civil War, and most wars hence, who by the grace of the Gods she knows is relatively self employed...

Yes, I'd say crazy is pretty much a pre-requisit.

(Running for cover) 

The problem with revolutions is everyone wants to over-turn the table, but afterward they can't agree on what to use the wood for. - Shanawolf

If President Obama and the Democrats let a broken Republican Party rise from the ashes of November's defeat and like a horror film creature, regurgitate into life and whip their asses, I'd say it's the Democrats who have no future as they can not understand the ruthlessness of the GOP. Lyndon Johnson understood the GOP and how to screw them over. What went wrong? Was it losing the unions? The death of Bobby Kennedy that allowed the McGovern wing to turn the Dems into intellectuals who somehow cannot fight to win? Thoughts? Once the Dems could have called in Sam Giancanna. I miss those days. Once we had the steelworkers, the perfessors, and the Rat Pack. Jest like the good old days when the long-haired Pittsburgh Steelers whupped those candy-assed right-wing Dallas Cowboys. Let's do it again. Obama from Chicago needs to channel his inner Mike Ditka and take this thing HOME.

Either these people have lost the ability to govern, or the system as a whole has become to large to govern.  Could be either one.

And LBJ did not have to contend with a 24 hour news cycle with most of the stations in the hands of right wing, republican, corporations.

The Buck stops here. He needs to ignore FOX Noise and the two faced lyin GOP and ram it through complete with a public option. Faux News speaks only for itself. Bush sold almost the entire congress on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the Dems need to hammer as hard and stay on message

Bush may have sold that line of crap, but it seems to me that except for Barbra Lee, the Dems bought it lock, stock and barrel - just like they did the Patriot Act.  That entire fiasco (and Afghanistan too) was a joint effort.  Plenty 'O Blame to go around, or as the old song says: Nobodies right when everybody's wrong.

That being said, I wish someone would have bought him a spine for his birthday.  They do seem to be molly-coddling the losers, and its almost pathetic to watch.

And old Lyndon, well Lyndon knew how to play power politics.  And it would be nice to see Obama sit the 'blue dogs' down and tell them, in no uncertain terms that they either vote for this, with a strong public option, and the knowledge that a single payer system is on the horizon - or, as Lyndon would tell them... I'm going to stick every insane asylum, every sexual predator treatment center, and every toxic waste dump right in the middle of your damn district, and then watch the fun as you run for re-election without as much as a penny of support from us.

You know, a few gun-tottin' nut cases, (often with misspelled signs) get all this coverage, but back when SF had very large anti-war protests they were written off as a political throwback.  So, how are those wars doing?  They are doing - and you can go back and check it out - EXACTLY as well as the protesters feared. We are stuck in a quagmire, no way out, no path to victory and a huge fricking bill that could easily pay several times over for all the health care that is being discussed.


I was watching Dick Cheney (yes, I have a very strong stomach) and he was carping that all the decisions of the Obama Administrations are 'political.'  Really, how does he not burst into flames when he says that?

Neither party is willing to stop feeding from the corporate trough. Things will not change until we have leaders that want justice and are willing to admit what the problems are.

I'm not sure exactly what the hell is going on myself. Why is it that so many people who are otherwise rational have become beligerent, hostile and downright stuipid?

These are not all neocons or right-wing extremists...or any of the usual suspects. Many of them just don't trust government to get anything right. This is change they don't want.

My letter carrier can't seem to get my check in the right box, but they damn sure track me down if some bill collector needs to find me.

From my perspective, people are pissed off that the government is bailing out all the rich folks while the rest of us are losing our jobs, homes, health care, retirement savings...everything. The banks and corporations are getting bailed out and we are getting stuck with the bills.

That is pissing people off, it's enough to make anyone stupid with rage.

Yet another deluded writer trying to pass off the unmitigated BS that anger/rage/craziness are the sole province of the right.

Pretty much standard issue boilerplate nonsense. Probably out of "left Wing columns for Dummies"

Are Birthers crazy? Oh hell yeah.

pretty much just like the "Bush stole the Election" crowd nine years ago....and plenty of other examples on both ends of the spectrum.

Terry Schivo people...."blood for Oil"....Mena Airport....Bork's America....

Lots of crazies.

Not all on the right.

anyone who wants to rant about, for instance, Michael Savage (whom I LOATH for the record) best spare a moment's thought for Keith Olberman....anyone who wants to mock Ann coulter ought turn a jaded eye on Bill mahr....so forth and so on.

but they don't.

For far too many people the crazies are all on the other side.

That, of course, and people like me who are crazy enough to contradict the popular meme.

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Post Merge: September 19, 2009, 03:03:57 PM

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Quote from: xsocialworker on September 03, 2009, 11:53:23 PM
The Buck stops here. He needs to ignore FOX Noise and the two faced lyin GOP and ram it through complete with a public option. Faux News speaks only for itself.

Funny that more people watch Fox than watch ALL the other cable news outlets COMBINED, eh?

That's an impressive accomplishment for an outlet no one at all agrees with.

To be sure, it doesn't prove they are right - but it sure proves they resonate with a heck of a lot of people besides just themselves.

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Post Merge: September 19, 2009, 04:19:20 PM

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Quote from: CindyJames on August 17, 2009, 04:08:40 AM
I know it's not my right to comment, but: (LORD I LOVE THAT LINE IT'S MY CUE )

I was totally amazed watching FOX USA news about seemingly intelligent people complaining that a "free" health service that would assist the underprivliged was a descent into a socialism and communism. No way to that! it's better to let people suffer than to help them. Sick.

Sorry Heatherrose, I'm going to re-state it: Americans are weird!!


Cindy

Cindy, hun, I say what I say as one of those poor uninsured folks.

Good intentions don't pay the bills.

Currently we have the wonderfully well-intentioned medicare system which provides generally well recieved services to our elderly (who have paid into the Ponzi scheme all their lives)

Seems like an obvious good deal to pay for the health care of elderly folks, right?

Except that Medicare is going broke - again. After having been "rescued" at the cost of billions some 3 or 4 times before. Current estimates project that by 2030 medicare will consume 1 out of every 4 dollars in federal revenues. By 2050 one out of every two (and Social Security will get the other one, by the way).

either that or the average taxpayer will pay 2/3 of his income to the federal government....just to maintain the current government, not counting adding the new plan

(and that's not counting massive spending currently going to Medicaid  - for those really poor people we are worried about - which also can't keep it's financial head above water and which is wrecking the state budgets of many states because the state has to contribute funds in order to "draw down" federal dollars)

And how does Medicare achieve the cost/benefit ratio they have now? By squeezing providers with artifically low price points and restrictions on potential cost-saving innovations.

Those artificially low prices don't mean providers take a loss, they simply increase the cost to all other patients, which increases the cost of insurance, which feeds the cycle of growing health care costs.

Add to that the fact that foreign governments cap the cost of drugs, which means that Americans pay more than there share in terms of development costs and it goes up again.

in fact, almost every factor which increases health care costs in this country is a direct or indirect result of government action.

The point is - it's all well and good to want to "take care of the poor" but the money has to be there. And it's not. It's not there to pay for the obligations we already have, let alone create new ones (and I was saying this while Bush was riding the Drug-Plan pony a few years ago too).

The only way to make sure everyone has coverage is to bring back the FREE MARKET.

I believe, STRONGLY, that the government should insure those who can't afford coverage get care. but that has to come within the context of not screwing up the market so that everyone's costs are as low as practical.

The canard that right wingers are cold-hearted bastards who don't give a damn about the poor is just one more example of what's wrong with the public discourse in this country (and possibly elsewhere) - we can't seem to be content to say "I disagree with your ideas" - everything is reduced to "the other side is teh EEEEEEvil!"

(witness the context of pretty much ANY comment ever made about Dick Cheney)

Those who oppose this plan are not black-hearted monsters who don't care about the poor. Despite the caricature that is often drawn.