Apparently, the Democrats calling attendees of town hall meetings “mobs sent by the Republicans” just isn’t enough for them. 

Now they are being referred to by some Democrats as “Nazis”. 

U.S. Representative Brian Baird (D-Vancouver) has stated that he will not attend any further town hall meetings due to the unruliness of the attendees.   Though he has attended such meetings in the past, he has decided to follow the example of some of his fellow Democrat representatives… hold a “phone-in” town hall meeting instead. 

In a telephone interview he held last Wednesday, Baird stated that “What we’re seeing right now is very close to brown shirt tactics. I mean that very seriously”.

Rep. Baird is not the only one who has alluded to this. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, after insulting the protester’s grass roots movement by calling it an “astro turf movement”, has claimed that she has seen protesters “carrying signs with swastikas, and things like that”.  

Did she actually see any protesters carrying signs with swastikas? Maybe she has, but I wonder if Pelosi ever considered if the swastikas were being used in reference to her? 

Nah, I’m giving her too much credit. I’ll say this much, though. The liberals sure didn’t hesitate to use the swastika in reference to George Bush. Pelosi certainly didn’t seem bothered by them back then. Go ahead, google the words “Bush, Nazi and swastika” and see how many pictures you get. 

You want to talk about brown shirt tactics? Fine, let’s talk about them. Here are a few examples…

A brown shirt tactic is when an administration of a sitting president actually provides an email address for the purpose of their supporters to snitch on their fellow citizens. Know someone who doesn’t agree with the Obama plan? Report them to us, and we’ll investigate. While the site gives the impression that this is only for those non-solicited type emails and web ads, the whole thing smacks of “big brother”.

This actually isn’t the first time that Obama has pulled a stunt like this. In the early days of his campaign for the presidency, his “Fight the Smears” website’s original mission statement was to “track down and expose” those who were spreading “false rumors” about him. It never elaborated on what exactly would happen to the “smearers” once they were exposed. However, as of this writing, it appears that the mission statement was removed a long time ago. 

Another brown shirt tactic is for a sitting president to encourage his supporters, in this case the labor unions (specifically the AFL-CIO and the SEIU), to attend these town hall meetings for the purpose of countering the anti-public option health care protesters.   Granted, I’ve only heard that Obama has given them their marching orders, I haven’t seen any actual proof of this, but what I have noticed is a lack of appeals by Obama to these labor unions to keep their activities peaceful. Labor unions unfortunately have a bad reputation for using “physical” methods of getting their way with people, as Kenneth Gladney, a victim of an assault by members of the SEIU after a health care town hall meeting, can tell you.   Fortunately, Mr. Gladney seems to be doing alright, as he stated in his interview. 

Another brown shirt tactic is an administration creating a “boogyman” out of a specific group, in this case the insurance companies, in order to encourage your populace to blame them for all of their problems. Kind of like what Hitler and the Arabs have done to the Jews. “See those people there? THEY are the cause of all your suffering!”

Brown shirt tactics is shutting people who oppose you out of an open town hall meeting, and sneaking your supporters in through a back door.

Of course, another brown shirt tactic is for the sitting president of the United States to openly demonize the citizens of his own country who disagree with his policies. 

Not since the days of Nixon have I ever heard of a president of the United States using his supporters to suppress and intimidate those citizens who disagree with him. I don’t recall Reagan, either of the Bush’s, or even Clinton or Carter pulling this. Obama’s tactics would be more suitable for a tyrannical, third-world leader (like Hugo Chavez. I did point out at one time how alike they are) than an American president. While we haven’t heard any fiery tirades from him yet, he has been ranting about not wanting to hear the “people who created this mess talk” and to “get out of our way”.  

Funny he should mention that; that’s precisely what conservatives like myself say about the government; especially under the current administration.

Sources:

Facts are Stubborn Things: Macon Phillips, 9/4/09

Fight at Carnahan Town Hall Event: posted by “moogrouge”, YouTube

Victim of Alleged SEIU Town Hall Assault in St. Louis Interviewed by Cavuto: Matthew Balan, NewsBusters

Dems Sneak Union Thugs into Carnahan Town Hall: posted by “mghoft”, YouTube

Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer Attack Concerned Citizens: posted by “snickerpoohed”, YouTube

Stop the Presses: I’ve Found Nancy Pelosi’s Swastika Pictures!: Vocal Minority

Unions to Take on Conservative Groups Health Care Town Halls: Sam Stein, The Huffington Post

I’ve heard this ad several times on the radio, and I was finally able to watch the video version of it this morning.   The ad, sponsored by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), claims that the angry protestors that have been showing up in recent town hall meetings are actually “mobs” that have been organized by “desperate right wing Republican extremists”, whose only goals are to destroy President Obama and to prevent the change that an “overwhelmingly majority of Americans voted for in November”.   The ad also claims that this activity is “straight from the playbook of high-level Republican political operatives”. 

The ad can be viewed on Hannity’s “Great American Blog”.

Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen; those of us who disagree with Obama’s health care reform policy have just been promoted to mob status.  Next they’ll be accusing us of racism. Oh, wait… they already have.

Whoops, I forgot; they're officially “insurance reform” policies now. Obama’s advisors informed him that he picked the wrong target for the public’s wrath. It turns out that most people like their health care. It’s the insurance companies that people hate.

Alright, back to the ad. I’m not going to address all of the claims about the Republicans being responsible for “8 years of failure” and millions of lost jobs and such… that would turn this column into a novel. Rather, I’m going to look at the part of the ad which makes accusations about the Republicans somehow being responsible for the mobs.

First ad quote: “Desperate Republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs, just like they did during the election. Their goal? Destroy President Obama and stop the change that Americans voted for overwhelmingly in November”.

Interestingly, the ad does not site any proof, or sources, of these “well-funded allies” organizing mobs. Granted, the ad may not have had the time to quote any sources, but you would think that they would have at least flashed the names of some of the organizations responsible for placing the plants at the town hall meetings on the screen.

So who are these allies? You’re guess is as good as mine. Maybe one of you can enlighten me.

You also hear a couple of quick audio clips of Republican Senator Jim DeMint (“It will break him”) and conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh (“I hope he fails.”)

Here is the full quote from Sen. DeMint: “This health care issue is D-Day for freedom in America. If we lose this, we’ll probably have half of our economy in some way controlled by the federal government. We can’t allow that to happen. And on the other side of it, if we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

Sounds to me that “breaking President Obama” is more of an added bonus to defeating the health care reform bill, not the overall purpose.

As far as Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” comment, it was taken out of context. Limbaugh was implying that he wanted Obama’s socialist policies to fail, not fail as a president.

Moving on to another quote; “This mob activity is straight from the playbook of high-level Republican political operatives.”

As if to demonstrate this “playbook”, you are briefly shown an official-looking document with the phrases “opportunity to yell out” and “intermittent shout outs” highlighted on the document, in large print. This is right at the 0:42 second mark.   The document piqued my curiosity, so I looked it up (Rocking the Town Halls – Best Practices) on the web.   You can click on the link provided and read a copy of it for yourself. 

This is actually a memo from a conservative organization called “Right Principles”, which I believe was passed out or delivered to its members. I would hardly call this a page from the playbook of high-level Republican operatives. Also, note that while the memo does encourage its members to shout and yell out, it also informs you not to cause a scene either.   Questions that you ask must contain as many facts and figures as possible.   The shouting is encouraged if the politician is caught lying, or just saying something ridiculous, but once you’ve made your point, you need to sit back down again. 

Judging from the rowdy behavior on the videos I’ve seen of some of the the protesters at the town hall meetings, I don’t think too many of them read that particular memo.

Last quote: “They have no plan for moving our country forward, so they’ve called out the mob.”

Alright, first of all, I’d like to point out that, once again, the ad offers no proof of Republicans “calling out the mob” to disrupt town hall meetings. While it may be true that some conservative organizations have encouraged their members to attend these meetings, that doesn’t make them a mob with the sole purpose of disrupting them.  In all likelihood, many of the protesters were planning on attending anyway.   The organizations just informed them of where and when they were taking place.  You can bet that liberal organizations have been encouraging their members to attend these meetings as well.  Should we accuse them of organizing mobs? They’ve certainly been encouraging their labor unions to participate. It’s been said that Obama himself has asked labor unions to attend.

Second, it’s not that the Republicans have no solutions of their own; their plans just aren’t publicized much in the mainstream media.  I will admit, however, that it's partially their own fault, as they don't seem too keen on promoting them.  Some ideas that have been introduced include, but are not necessarily limited to:

Greater utilization of Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s), which are similar to retirement accounts, only they can be used to cover for pre-conditions that are not covered by standard insurance policies.

The Patient’s Choice Act of 2009, which promotes a Health Insurance Exchange to allow patients to choose the plans that best suites them, using market competition which would bring down prices.  Obama’s plan, while it features a version of the Health Insurance Exchange, does not promote these companies to compete with each other. They would be more or less controlled by the government, which would result in rationing.

Cross-state insurance purchasing: Currently, you are only allowed to purchase insurance from your state of residence.  By allowing insurance companies to compete with each other nationwide, rather than restricting the customer to only their state of residence, this would help bring prices down due to the increased competition. For example, if you live in the state of Florida, you can only buy health insurance from that state. However, if you get the option to purchase insurance from any state of your choosing, you can pick whatever plan is right for you, at the price you want, regardless of the state it is offered in. Some states offer cheaper insurance plans than others. Companies nationwide would start bringing their prices down in order to avoid losing customers to their competitors. This was actually introduced by John McCain during the last campaign.

Reducing Insurance Mandates: Many health insurance plans come with mandates that you simply do not need or want, like coverage for chiropractors, hair transplants, alcoholism, etc. This increases the cost. Having the ability to remove these mandates would decrease the cost of the coverage. This actually goes hand-in-hand with McCain’s suggestion for cross-state purchases.

Unlike the supporters of the Obama plan, I won’t claim that these ideas are perfect, but at least now you can set your “Obamacare” supporting friends straight the next time they tell you that “all the Republicans do is complain, they don’t have any ideas of their own”.

In conclusion, be wary of what you see in the media, whether it’s a news program, a talk show (either right-wing or left-wing), or a political ad. Don’t assume that everything they say is true. Get in the habit of checking their claims for yourself.   I guarantee that you’ll begin to see politics with a different eye.

Sources and Interesting Links:

Memo Details Co-ordinated Anti-Reform Harrasment Strategy: Beyond Chron; The Voice of the Rest: 08/05/09

Sound of the Day 8/5: Hannity Producers, Fox News Blog

HSA Frequently Asked Questions: United States Department of the Treasury

McCain’s Plan is Sound: Michael F. Cannon, CATO Institute.

Patient’s Choice Act May 2009: pdf file

Right Principals; Unapologetically American: Conservative website