So, earlier today, while reading the comment threads at Pandagon.net about health care reform and health care protestors, I encountered the delightful description of liberals as mean for making fun of the "keep your government off my Medicare" people. I've seen clips of both elderly men and women saying this while disrupting town hall meetings, most notably on the Rachel Maddow show. *
"Of course, they understand that Medicare is a government run program," one of our detractors insists. Following up with it being mean of us to assume they didn't, because they're just average Americans speaking their mind not fancy-pants edumacated libruls who hate freedom... Ok, I'm totally paraphrasing that last part. I admit it.
Let me explain something to you, Skippy.
Characterizing those elderly protestors as ill-informed, or even stupid, is the kinder of the options available to us. The other option is to believe that they are evil enough to not want others to have the same access to care that they themselves enjoy. And that's just plain evil. Not to mention extremely unChristian.
Have I mentioned lately that I'm a mean bitch? I probably should bring that up more often.
However, even I tend to err on the side of "Do not ascribe to malice what can be more easily explained by stupidity," given what I've seen of the world. I even gave W a break on that one for awhile, assuming him to be an idiot rather than Satan. And... I was probably wrong, because no one is that stupid. At least not all the time.
So, I'm more than willing to believe that these elderly folks that groups like Freedom Works and such are bussing all over the place to disrupt meetings about health care are in fact dupes of the scare mongering about denying them surgery to pay for abortion parties, and Death Panels.
Because otherwise I have to believe that grandmas and grandpas are evil. And while I'm sure some are, given the law of averages. I would prefer to think the majority of the elderly want for their descendants every advantage they can give them.
*I must confess, I have a giant crush on Rachel Maddow, particularly her brain, and think you all should watch her show. I will warn you that the footage of her on Meet the Press confirmed for me that she has the patience of a saint, because I would so have punched both Coburn and Armey for the vile, pandering, lying bullshit escaping their faces. Ok, maybe not punched, but I probably would have shrieked in frustration and caused a whole lot of editing with an avalanche of expletives.
Mickey Schulz is a guest author for the California NOW blog; her opinions are not necessarily those of California NOW. Copyright Mickey Schulz, with permission granted to California NOW for use on this site.
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