Interesting (if biased) post on the current conservative movement placing the ‘birthers’ and their ilk in some historical context:
So the birthers, the anti-tax tea-partiers, the town hall hecklers — these are “either” the genuine grass roots or evil conspirators staging scenes for YouTube? The quiver on the lips of the man pushing the wheelchair, the crazed risk of carrying a pistol around a president — too heartfelt to be an act. The lockstep strangeness of the mad lies on the protesters’ signs — too uniform to be spontaneous. They are both. If you don’t understand that any moment of genuine political change always produces both, you can’t understand America, where the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and where elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests.
In the early 1950s, Republicans referred to the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as “20 years of treason” and accused the men who led the fight against fascism of deliberately surrendering the free world to communism. Mainline Protestants published a new translation of the Bible in the 1950s that properly rendered the Greek as connoting a more ambiguous theological status for the Virgin Mary; right-wingers attributed that to, yes, the hand of Soviet agents. And Vice President Richard Nixon claimed that the new Republicans arriving in the White House “found in the files a blueprint for socializing America.”
John Power | 23-Aug-09 at 2:23 pm | Permalink
I think it is deeply unfair how so much of the media continues to label all the protesters as ‘crazies’ or racists or whatever other libellous term. People are perfectly within their rights to protest against a hugely expensive programme which will alter fundamental aspects of their healthcare. And as if it is self-evident that Obama’s plan is the right course of action. Sure, there are wackos at those town hall meetings, but mostly it is ordinary Americans. The majority, according to the polls now, are against Obama’s plan. The condescending attitude towards the dissenters is exactly why FOX News is gaining listeners and the likes of MSNBC are haemorrhaging them. People are fed of the elitist attitudes of some liberals.
John | 24-Aug-09 at 6:14 pm | Permalink
Hey JP,
As we talked about on facebook a bit, I don’t think that all of the people involved are crazy but there is definitely a section of them who are not exactly reasonable. And I recognise that its not exclusively a ‘conservative’ or ‘Republican’ thing too. In fact I’d agree completely with you that “People are perfectly within their rights to protest against a hugely expensive programme which will alter fundamental aspects of their healthcare” as you put it. But I posted this article to talk about what I see as the ‘crazies’ and acknowledged at the start of the post (I think) that the author has a bias, (that I largely share) but at least I’m honest about it?