Birthers, Deathers and Screamers

" Democrats have moved to the right and The Right has moved to a mental hospital."

-Bill Maher

It used to be that when you thought about the conservative right, people like William Buckley, Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston came to mind; solid, staid, conventional traditionalists.

These days, however, it seems to me, that the conservative right has turned into the emotional equivalent of an angry five year old lying on the floor having a screaming hissy fit.

Lets start with The Birthers, those folks who STILL don't believe that President Obama was born in the US and think that he is really a Muslim terrorist bent on destroying the country. Even though the State of Hawaii has (repeatedly) produced his legal birth certificate these people just won't give it up.

The youtube video (ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ2i9cEtZ60) of the woman waiving her birth certificate around in a baggie and yelling that she wanted her country back pretty much sums up The Birthers for me: They are uncomfortable with the world as it is today; they feel like they are being left behind by globalization and technological development, and most of all they hate the fact that a black man is president. The country they want back doesn't exist any more and it is not coming back.

The Deathers would have you believe that under a government run health care system, the minute you turn 65 you will be put on an ice flow and set afloat to die. This of course is ridiculous because ice flows are now almost non-existent due to global warming. You will have to drink the cyanide laced Kool-Aid instead.

But seriously, what is actually being proposed is advise on living wills and counseling for the terminally ill. Since death is a very sensitive subject for a lot of people, I can see where even something this benign could make people fearful, but to say that the government is proposing death squads is ludicrous.

If you are fearful of having your health care rationed, and of having some administrator tell you "sorry, you are too sick to live," then you should be very afraid of the health care insurance industry as it is today, because that is exactly what they are doing.

Then there are The Screamers, those "angry citizens" breaking up town hall meeting across the country shouting out the same well rehearsed phrases and reading off of pre-printed propaganda sheets. They learned well from Glenn Beck's on air meltdown when a pro-health care caller had the temerity to confront him with facts he could not refute and he ended up hysterically screaming "get off of my phone" over and over again. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/15/caller-reduces-glenn-beck_n_233846.html)

Town hall meetings are supposed to be a forum for the EXCHANGE of ideas and opinions. Screaming down speakers who are trying to express their opinions is not an exchange of ideas, it's mob mentality, and if that's what you want, then you need to hold a rally, where that type of behavior is expected.

This week a politician finally had the cajones to stand up to these people. Barney Frank told a woman comparing Obama to Hitler that it was a testimony to the 1^st amendment that she was able to express her opinions, but that holding a conversation with her would be like arguing with a dining room table. Thank you, Barney, couldn't have said it better myself. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8)