What a noble sentiment. And what a spectacularly, blatantly false one. One would have to believe King knows full well it is false, but then again he is a conservative Republican, and conservative Republicans are at this point synonymous with manufactured realities in which tax cuts cause unicorns to fart rainbows of money across the land and decent public education is the gateway to Stalinism. So it is equally possible that King is being honest, at least within the narrow confines of his own head, and he honestly believes that no Americans are out there who do not have basic health care.
But I know some of the very people who King claims do not exist, and I expect you do too. One of my own close relatives suffers from an untreated hernia — simple enough to fix, but untreated because he is uninsured. He has an option, of course. His “option” is to wait for it to get bad enough to cause an intestinal strangulation — a likelihood, at this point — at which point he will be rushed to the emergency room, hopefully operated on, and then receive a bill for some outrageous figure that he will not be able to pay. But he will only receive this treatment if it reaches the point where he will die without it — merely being incapacitated is insufficient to receive health care.
But while it is arrogant and dangerous to accuse the entire conservative movement or Republican Party of racism, it is equally dangerous to stick one’s head in the sand and claim it isn’t a factor. There is racism afoot in the modern conservative movement, we can prove it, and even if it is only relegated to the movement’s fringe, it only takes one nut to inspire another to commit what he sees as a necessary murder for the good of his country. It is wrong to accuse 46% of voters or 5 million Fox News viewers of racism, but it is equally wrong to look the other way when even just a few hundred racists speak up. I went to high school in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where the presence of a few bad apples (the Aryan Nations compound) taught a good community a hard lesson: silence is acceptance.
Even if the turnout wasn’t the 2 million that some conservatives tried, briefly, to claim, it was still enough to fill the streets near the Capitol. It was also ample testament to the strength of a certain strain of right-wing populist rage and the talking head who has harnessed it. The masses were summoned by Glenn Beck, Fox News host and organizer of the 912 Project, the civic initiative he pulled together six months ago to restore America to the sense of purpose and unity it had felt the day after the towers fell.
In reality, however, the so-called 912ers were summoned to D.C. by the man who changed Beck’s life, and that helps explain why the movement is not the nonpartisan lovefest that Beck first sold on air with his trademark tears. Beck has created a massive meet-up for the disaffected, paranoid Palin-ite “death panel” wing of the GOP, those ideologues most susceptible to conspiracy theories and prone to latch on to eccentric distortions of fact in the name of opposing “socialism.” In that, they are true disciples of the late W. Cleon Skousen, Beck’s favorite writer and the author of the bible of the 9/12 movement, “The 5,000 Year Leap.” A once-famous anti-communist “historian,” Skousen was too extreme even for the conservative activists of the Goldwater era, but Glenn Beck has now rescued him from the remainder pile of history, and introduced him to a receptive new audience.
Prooftexting is as dangerous in the political arena as in the spiritual. Exhibit one would be the wingnut fetish with a certain quote by Thomas Jefferson to the effect that the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots.
Not surprisingly, the full context take it in a different direction. This great piece at Firedoglake provides an analysis.
I wonder how many of the misguided wingnuts who intimidate and strive to thuggishly silence their fellow citizens have read the whole passage? They may be comforted by what seems to be stirring phrase, when torn out of context, but they shouldn’t. They misunderstand its meaning, and misunderstand their fate if they give in to violence.
Jefferson told the rest of the citizenry what to do in the face of any such violent watering. Jefferson’s advice to the peaceful is much more arduous than striking out in ignorant violence, but we cannot shrink from his instructions. It is our duty as patriotic citizens to remember the words that surround that disturbing phrase, and act on them if necessary.
I suppose it isn’t surprising the birthers are so desperate to believe they’ll fall for an obvious hoax. But it remains a sad spectacle of how little of substance the right wing has to say. Ed Brayton discusses:
Dave Weigel, my Center for Independent Media colleague, has an article at the Washington Independent about the latest idiocy from Orly Taitz, the endlessly ridiculous leader of the birthers. It’s a fake Kenyan birth certificate. Naturally, it’s the Worldnutdaily credulously publishing about it and calling it real:
“The new document released by Taitz bears none of the obvious traits of a hoax.”Really? None of the obvious traits of a hoax? Take it away, Mr. Weigel:
You know, if there’s anyone who shouldn’t bring up the issue of mental stability, it’s Michele Bachmann.
I know everyone deserves representation in Congress, but can’t the deranged whack job demographic go back to looking to Texas and Georgia for their standardbearers?
