The Healthcare War - Part 1: How the Right is Attacking the Debate...Literally
Jonathan Denby
Mob trying to force their way into townhall meeting in Tampa, Fl. CHRIS ZUPPA / ST. PETERSBURG TIMES / ZUMA
The views contained within are the opinions of the author.
Since the inauguration of Barak Obama to the Presidency, we have seen a vicious counterattack fom the rightwing. From the Paul Shanklin song, Barack the Magic Negro (which Rush Limbaugh enjoyed playing on his show), to the recent attempts by the right to question even his nationality and citizenship (Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii). Now, with reform of the national healthcare system on the table, the rightwing is at it again—except this time they are attempting to portray Obama as a communist for seeking reform of the healthcare system. To aid in this endeavor, they are utilizing a tactic that has worked for them before: organized mobs of conservatives whose mission now is to disrupt townhall meetings where such reform is being debated.
Those who paid attention during the 2000 presidential election will remember these mobs being employed in Miami Dade county to disrupt the recounting of the election ballots (which, had they been recounted, Florida would have went to Al Gore). At that time, these mobs seemed to be a joke, but the laughter and ridicule suddenly stopped when it became apparent they were having success. They were part of a larger scheme that saw Bush’s brother, Jeb (Florida’s governor), and a conservative-majority Supreme Court, actively lift George W. Bush into power—where he spent the next eight years driving the nation into the ground in every way possible.
Raleigh , NC. HARAZ N. GHANBARI / AP
The strategy being employed now is simple yet just as effective: organize what appear to be spontaneous, grassroots popular uprisings against the attempts of Obama and the Democrats to introduce “socialism” into the healthcare system.
Now, the townhall meeting has replaced the voting center as the target of opportunity for the right. In recent days, we have seen these mobs of angry conservatives make the news when they burst into these meetings and try to shout down (or even assault in some cases) the liberal attendees in the crowd and the Democratic senator or congressman who is onstage speaking in favor of healthcare reform. See related video at bottom of article
The larger strategy behind this is not merely to intimidate supporters of reform, but, more importantly, to win a propaganda coup. By creating the impression of citizen outrage, the rightwing hopes to undermine Obama’s ability to get that reform passed through Congress and the States. If they can create the illusion of a popular uprising against national healthcare reform, and if the left fails to counter this strategy with strategies of their own, then these mobs can have a serious impact on whether Obama succeeds or not.
Let us be clear, however: these mobs are an illusion. What appears on television and in the newspapers as spontaneous protests against healthcare reform are actually highly organized, coordinated, and staged events. In many instances, Republican and conservative volunteers are bused in from the surrounding area for the sole purpose of disrupting legitimate townhall meetings. Rightwing commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity take to the airwaves and incite their faithful listeners to riot and disrupt the debate as much as possible. Republican senators and congressmen appear on popular media programs such as Meet the Press and CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight to argue that the country is witnessing a popular backlash against Obama’s healthcare plan. Checkmate.
The rightwing is also dusting off another favorite tactic to use against Obama: the tactic of “Red Baiting.” Coming to prominence in the 1950s with the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy, red-baiting was used to delegitimize and marginalize liberals and leftists in this country by portraying them as agents, a “fifth-column,” of international communism (represented at that time by the Soviet Union). It is now being resurrected to portray Obama as a crazy socialist bent on turning the USA into the USSA with his healthcare initiative. Among their arguments are that the federal government will decide the doctor-patient relationship, that there will be “death panels” to oversee who gets treatment and who does not, and that taxes will be raised significantly to pay for the proposed changes.
These arguments are ridiculous and have no basis in reality. Firstly, Obama does not intend to “socialize” the national healthcare system and bring it under the control of the federal government. What the plan calls for is offering the public a government healthcare plan in addition to private health insurance plans. Nobody—individual or business—would be forced to abandon the plans they currently have with a private insurance company. If they like that plan, they can stick with it. However, Obama is proposing an alternative to compete with private insurance companies. This new healthcare plan would allow a citizen to pick from the same list of insurance options that federal employees (including Republican congressmen and senators) enjoy. In that list would be a government insurance plan that would be very competitive against any private insurance option out there. The plan would offer reduced premiums and deductibles, and would offer cheaper prescription drugs. The plan would be practically free for those too poor to afford insurance, and very affordable for those in the middle-class.
The plan also calls for new consumer protection laws on private insurance companies. The proposed laws call for outlawing the widespread practice of denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. No longer can insurance companies deny care to those already with a disease or illness. Also, insurance companies would not be able to use legal maneuvering and fine-print to deny medications and medical procedures that are essential to a person’s medical care.
What the rightwing really is angry about is the notion that the government may be able to seriously compete with the private sector and offer a much better deal to the American people. They also despise the idea that the government is now starting to seriously consider regulating the insurance industry—an industry that has been running amok for a very long time without any regulations and oversight. That, the rightwing believes, is interference in their beloved “free-market.”
So the question now becomes, how should reasonable people deal with both the rightwing mobs and the red baiting?
Chandler, Arizona. JACK KURTZ / ZUMAOn the question of the mobs, the first option that comes to mind is to insist that local law enforcement become involved in protecting these townhall meetings. After all, the rightwing never shied away from using the security forces of the state to violently crush leftwing dissent; so why should the left not use the police—not to crush dissent, but keep rioters from disrupting legitimate public gatherings? Let them create “free-speech zones”—fenced-in enclosures, surrounded by riot-police armed with batons and rubber bullets—where the rightwing can gather and yell and jeer all they want. Let them taste what anti-war demonstrators, environmentalists, and union-members have had to endure for years and years.
If this fails to work then the tactic of nonviolent direct action against these mobs also seems attractive. This would probably take the form of activists physically blocking entrances to prevent members of these rightwing mobs from gaining access to the auditoriums where the public debates are being held. Any violence would therefore come from the mobs, which would hurt their image in the media and public opinion in general. Although, if history is any guide, the right would not shy away from using violence against peaceful activists, regardless of any public relations problems it would cause them.
The option of last resort, of course, is to meet force with force. If the rightwing can organize mobs to attack these meetings, then the leftwing can organize groups to protect these meetings. However, there are obvious and numerous drawbacks: escalating violence between right and left, as well as the fact that Obama’s image could suffer and the agenda of healthcare reform jepordized.
Then there is the other problem of how to deal with red-baiting. This is a much easier problem to deal with because it involves confronting rightwing propaganda—not violent rightwing mobs . In this regard, the Obama administration has been slow to react to the misinformation being put out by the Republicans and their allies. This has given the rightwing time to “frame” the debate in their favor and mobilize their powerful propaganda machine to disseminate their lies. Obama and the Democrats, if they are to succeed in their endeavor, must go on the offensive and clearly articulate to the American people 1) why it is imperative that changes be made to the existing healthcare system 2) how everyone is being conned by the private insurance industry and drug companies, and 3) why the Republicans and the rightwing have a vested interest in trying to thwart any efforts to overhaul the healthcare system.
Fox News and Rush Limbaugh may be a powerful propaganda organs for the right, but Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, the Daily Show with John Stewart, Bill Maher on HBO, PBS, and other leftwing media outlets and blogs are also powerful—that is, if they are united in their message and determined not to allow the rightwing to set the parameters of the discussion.
Meeting in Romulus, Mich. KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL / DETROIT FREE PRESS / LANDOVWhatever way these mobs and the red-baiting are handled, one this is for sure: we will continue to see their use by the right for the foreseeable future. By creating the impression of a popular uprising again healthcare reform, they are proving to be an effective propaganda weapon for the opponents of such reform. And by trying to portray Obama is a communist in the White House, they hope to instill fear in the American people that the “red-scourge” is back from the bygone days of the Cold War.
Fear. That has been, is now, and will continue to be the main weapon of the rightwing in this country. For, it is a fact throughout history that those who can be made fearful can be made to think and do anything. Little wonder, after a major fear-campaign by the Bush administration in 2003, that a majority of the American public was made to believe that Iraq posed an imminent danger to the United States that warranted a military invasion. Now, they are trying to make the people believe that universal and affordable healthcare for everyone is somehow communistic, somehow un-American.
William Kostric, Portsmouth, N.H.And the rightwing seems to be getting more and more violent, as exemplified at one recent mob gathering in New Hampshire where a participant brought a loaded gun strapped to his leg. Conservatives may be out of power for the moment in Washington, but under no circumstances should it be assumed that they are any less dangerous. They are getting more racist and more radicalized. It is now known, for instance, that recruitment for neo-Nazi and white-supremacist groups in the country has risen sharply. Obama, the Democrats, and the left in general can either ignore these facts to their own peril, or can start fighting back against these groups and tactics. For too long, the rightwing has been allowed to get away with obscene criminality in this country. The time has come for them to be stopped.
For everyone who thinks I am making all this up, check out the video of a recent townhall meeting in Tampa, FL that was disrupted by one of these mobs:
Reader Comments (7)
It never ceases to amaze me how any member of the lower class could agree with the economic stances of the right.
very informative & well written. paul Reichart was on Bill Maher Monday night-call him & send him your posts
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