A Step Back From The Cliff

A lot of Americans are upset about the passage of the Healthcare Reform Bill. Depending on what poll you read, somewhere between 30 and 50% of the country’s citizens don’t approve of these changes.

Rumors about what is and is not in the Bill are flying around like flies at a picnic, and rumors weren’t the only things flying today. Bricks were thrown through the office windows of some members of congress who voted for the Bill, and one Congressman’s brother, whose house was mistaken for the residence of the Congressman, had his gas line cut. 

This is not how Americans settle our differences: It is how third world countries and dictators settle theirs. We need to take a step back and take a deep breath. There’s an election coming up in 8 months, and it’s at the ballot box that Americans should express their frustration and disapproval.

This behavior is beneath us and weakens our moral authority. .

15 thoughts on “A Step Back From The Cliff”

  1. When I read that article, I nearly screamed! This flies in the face of democracy. Aren’t these the same people who decry the “tyranny of the minority” and were outrageously upset when it came out that Obama knew Bill Ayers of the Weathermen? The hypocrisy is maddening.

  2. When our “responsible” legislators are calling fellow house members baby killers, the threat of violence goes up. When our “responsible” TV and radio opinion leaders throw oil on the fire by exaggerated or at best misleading claims, people’s emotions are inflamed. When ex-vice presidential candidates make absurd claims about about death panels, people believe lies.

    The atmosphere is being stoked with emotional statements and out right lies by people who should know better but are acting not in this country’s best interest, but their own. What do you expect to happen?

  3. Looking To Escape

    Congress gave the American people a middle finger salute, passed healthcare and they got a reaction violent reaction from a very, very small number of people. It’s not the end of the Republic… yet.
    .
    In the past a few of these people have been shown to be leftist even though the media at the time tried to paint them as true blue (oops- red) Republicans, Teabaggers, survivalists (put your favorite right leaning fear group here).
    .
    As to the two previous posters:
    “and were outrageously upset when it came out that Obama knew Bill Ayers of the Weathermen”
    Bill Ayers should be sitting in prison. I have heard him speak and if there ever was a hypocrite, it is Bill Ayers. Calling a Congressman names is a far cry from Ayer’s attempt at murder. It’s an interesting twist someone may get a fine or worse for a “hate crime” while Ayers gets a tenured position at the University of Chicago.
    .
    “When ex-vice presidential candidates make absurd claims about about death panels, people believe lies.”
    There are cost control panels in the health bill and they will recommend procedures. It is no stretch of the imagination those panels can mutate into death panels. If you look at the past history of Progressive behavior, you can see it has happened. History (and the British experience) IS on the side of Sarah Palin.

  4. While Republicans in Congress are certainly not responsible for other people’s actions, they are responsible for encouraging anger among those protesters they addressed with waving “Don’t Tread On Me” flags and “Kill the Bill” signs from the balcony of the Capitol last week. They are sophisticated enough to know that such rabble-rousing can encourage the more-mentally-unstable folks among the Tea Party groups to threatening and even violent acts. We just had a “tax protester”/lunatic fly a plane into an IRS office building (killing a black decorated Vietnam War vet working there) — and a member of Congress later said he sympathized with the motivations of the deranged pilot. When will a Republican leader in Congress stand up and urge his followers to refrain from threats and violence against his Democratic colleagues (I’m looking at you John McCain). Until they decry such behavior, the Republican leadership in Congress are fellow-travelers with the violent fringe.

  5. Looking To Escape

    “(killing a black decorated Vietnam War vet working there)”
    It would have been okay to kill a White decorated or an Asian decorated vet?. The purpose of separating out the race?
    .
    “Until they decry such behavior, the Republican leadership in Congress are fellow-travelers with the violent fringe.”
    There wasn’t a whole lotta decrying about behavior after Katrina and other hot button issues when Bush was president. Did Nancy Pelosi get on the House floor and give an impassioned speech about the vile attacks on Bush? Maybe I missed it. I did see her join in on the fun.
    .
    To date, there has been no political affiliation with the attacks established.

  6. There are always going to be the “lunatic fringe” on both sides. Let’s not forget the eco terrorists who burned down an entire housing development out west because they thought it was a scar upon the land.

    Violence should not be tolerated or encouraged by any responsible person or party. But it must be clear by now that many average citizens are outraged to the point of action over what they believe to be an illegal and unconstitutional piece of legislation. To take to the streets or the airwaves to protest that action by their government is a very American thing to do. To become threatening or violent, is not.

  7. Looking To Escape

    “To become threatening or violent, is not.”
    .
    That behavior is as old as America itself. May I mention Carrie Nation? John Brown? Emma Goldman? If I recall correctly even Thomas Jefferson said a democratic government may have to be renewed by bloodshed.
    .
    I expected a pretty ugly reaction from Bart Stupak’s (D-MI) supporters. They had a very deep, emotional investment in him and at the last minute he folded under some pretty transparent political cover given to him by Obama. He had strong supporters from both parties.
    .
    Several Republicans have already spoken out against the violence.
    .
    For myself, I do not justify the reaction but I want to see who was what before blaming a political party even though I see the media is already trying to determine the outcome.

  8. I think the problems run deeper than the Lunatic fringe in respect to the dangerous brinkmanship game of rhetoric occurring on the right as of late.

    Where was the outrage on the right when Rush Limbaugh was “dreaming of riots” prior to the 2008 DNC convention in Denver as one example of how deep this stuff goes. How American is trying to incite riots to disrupt the democratic process? He is often a keynote speaker at GOP events, and he has been pushing this stuff for years. When does it end?

    http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/15980105/detail.html

  9. Looking To Escape

    “He is often a keynote speaker at GOP events, and he has been pushing this stuff for years. When does it end?”
    .
    It will end when the Democrats stop giving him ammunition. I would also suggest deep down they like Limbaugh because he gives them a chance to wring their hands and parade around their sanctimony.
    .
    I will point out many of the threats (so-called) were nothing more than name calling, nothing more than what I hear on the street from kids yelling into their cell phones when I walk down Hamilton. Our Congress people are made of some pretty tough stuff, no?
    .
    Nancy Pelosi took great joy in goading people. After doing so, she then expected a gracious response. It never dawned on her she would be radically altering the lives of many people, extending government deeper into their personal being. Some people just do not accept such a thing graciously.
    .
    Now I will ask you a question, when will people like you post why did the Democrats misrepresent the health bill to us? Why is it the left wing press avoided discussing the details about the financing costs that kicks in after the 2012 election? Why doesn’t Barack Obama make a speech before the people who will have to deal with the increased expenses and legal costs of the bill instead of flying out to Iowa (oh, those CO2’s) and speak before a bunch of people who are totally clueless about the plan?
    .
    So, when will it all end? Maybe when the Democrats develop a sense of integrity. That’s when it will all end.

  10. Pam –

    Please don’t fall for this orchestrated media campaign by the democrat party. This is a coordinated effort to smear the members of the Tea Party Movement, and Speaker Pelosi’s march through the protesters last weekend was an attempt to provoke them.

    As to the threats, most of the voice messages and e-mails I heard would be better classified as either angry or strong insults. Perhaps not pretty but certainly not real threats.

    If they democrats are truly concerned about the tenor of the rhetoric, where were they last week when their undecided members were being threatened and bullied by the Left (and the White House)? I guess that’s somehow different.

    To date, the most severe incident seems to be targeted towards Eric Cantor, a Republican who OPPOSED health care reform. A bullet fired at your campaign office is a bit more serious than an angry voice mail.

    Yes, there are a few crazies in any group, but real violence is far more likely to come from the democrats on the left than the conservatives on the right.

    For the record, the guy who flew the plane into the building in Texas was a registered democrat. The professor in Alabama who shot several collegues was a democrat and an Obama supporter. Unlike those on the left who want to smear a group because of the actions of a few, I’m not going to use those incidents to deem all democrats terrorists.

  11. RS –

    I agree, but the bullet was directed at the office of the REPUBLICAN OPPONENT of the President’s health care scam. I think we can rule out opponents of the plan as the likely perpetrators.

    This doesn’t fit the template being played up by the media and the democrats.

  12. Bullet that hit Va. congressman’s office random

    By BOB LEWIS (AP) – 2 days ago

    RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond police say the bullet that hit a window of Republican Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor’s office had been randomly fired skyward.

    Amid reports of threats and vandalism against Democrats who voted Sunday for sweeping health care reforms, Cantor said at a Washington news conference Thursday that a bullet was fired into his Richmond office.

    In a news release, Richmond police said that the bullet had been fired into the air early Tuesday. It hit the front window of a building that houses Cantor’s campaign office as it fell to back earth at a sharp angle.

    The round landed on the floor of the office a foot inside a broken window pane. No one was in the building, and police say an investigation has yielded no suspects.

  13. Death threats against any elected official are threats to our whole society. I don’t care if the views of the person in question are diametrically opposed to my own. A civil and democratic society depends on us being civil!

Leave a Reply to Pamela Varkony Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top