Earlier this week I read an article entitled 50 Things That Are Being Killed By The Internet. Number one on the list: the art of polite disagreement. It said:
While the inane spats of YouTube commenters may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have “agendas”.
It seems this entry was tailor-made for the current atmosphere in which we discuss health care reform…or, as it’s more commonly known, Screaming Sound Bites At Elected Officials Without Ever Asking A Question Or Presenting Facts Or Letting The Guy Respond BECAUSE HE’S A SOCIALIST!
Yes, recent town hall-style meetings have been a real low point in the history of intelligent discourse, but as ridiculous as some of those forums got, even with the Hitler-mustachioed Obama pics, I think on some level we must have not only penetrated the bottom of the barrel, we started digging to China when Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina last night shouted out “You lie!” at Barack Obama during his address to Congress.
(Dunno about you, o readers, but I thought Nancy Pelosi was going to unleash the full fury of her heat vision on the dude.)
I’m already hearing the argument: he was exercising his right to free speech. True enough, but as I like to say, having the right to say whatever you want does not mean you have to say it…and it certainly doesn’t obligate you to act like a total arse when speaking.
I’m very relieved that instead of following his lead or trying to defend Wilson (as I’m sure some of the more whackadoo conservative commentators will — Glenn Beck, lookin’ at you), the GOP has roundly decried his behavior as unacceptable.
Wilson has since apologized and is now saying emotions got the better of him, and that he really wants to have a civilized conversation about this thorny matter. Oh, NOW he wants to be civilized…
I truly hopes this marks the official end of our modern Age Of Belligerence, but I’m somehow skeptical.
Y’know, I think I had a better point to make in this post, but I’m functioning on about two hours of sleep so I’ll just count myself lucky that this diatribe even vaguely resembles a coherent thought.
Tags: health care debate
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“think on some level we must have not only penetrated the bottom of the barrel, we started digging to China when Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina last night shouted out “You lie!” at Barack Obama”
Ugh, I couldn’t agree more! How embarrassing that someone in the Senate stoops to the average citizens behavior. Don’t we hold these people to a higher standard of behavior? Joe Wilson should be mortified and ashamed about his behavior.
Just for the record: Rep. Wilson’s accusation of “you lie” was, itself, a lie.
Oh, the bitter irony….
The only part of the Obamasiah’s reading of the teleprompter that I believed was the audience participation part… “You Lie!”
So we’re all clear on this: Wilson’s “You lie!” comment was in response to Obama’s statement that illegal aliens would not be covered under the reform proposal. Here’s the deal, courtesy of Factcheck.org:
Claim: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
False. That’s simply not what the bill says at all. This page includes “SEC. 152. PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTH CARE,” which says that “[e]xcept as otherwise explicitly permitted by this Act and by subsequent regulations consistent with this Act, all health care and related services (including insurance coverage and public health activities) covered by this Act shall be provided without regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.” However, the bill does explicitly say that illegal immigrants can’t get any government money to pay for health care. Page 143 states: “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.” And as we’ve said before, current law prohibits illegal immigrants from participating in government health care programs.
So, Rob number two, you are in error.
You’re also kind of proving my point with the “Obamasiah” crack that people can’t see fit to elevate the tone of the debate. So thanks for that much, I guess…