Credit where credit's due: Sarah Palin knows how to capture headlines. She also knows how to speak the language of America's most persecuted demographic: white Christian conservatives. Many in her audience believe in a secret plot by liberals to enact a radical secular agenda, and they view all progressive policies through the lens of this alleged conspiracy.

Sarah Palin on the health care plan:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

For the unvarnished version Palin's ideas, complete with Nazi references, read the account offered by the "Christian Anti-Defamation Committee" (yes, it exists, and yes, it is insane):

Your grandmother will be told to make plans to end her life early because her care will be too costly. After all, it is her duty to not to be a burden. Obama explained they will "encourage the use of living wills" that terminate otherwise viable lives through "do not resuscitate" (DNR) legal releases. This is nothing less than state sponsored euthanasia. Hitler began his reign of terror by his application of the brutal, Darwinian ethic, "survival of the fittest." He started killing the disabled and infirm because they were considered to be a burden on the state. Hitler rationalized the killing of innocent people in an effort to advance his fascist, national socialist agenda. In the name of doing what's best for the good of society, Hitler trivialized human life. Ultimately millions ended up paying with their lives. In the name of the public good, Obama and the Congress are on the same anti-Christian, pro-death path...Not only will this bill end the lives of the elderly, it will expand and subsidize the killing of babies through abortion. The "Capps Amendment" nationalizes free abortions for low-income urban neighborhoods, fulfilling the dream of eugenicist Margaret Sanger that minority babies will be the first exterminated. This is a Planned Parenthood full employment dream come true.

The CADC article quotes from an Investor's Business Daily editorial. The same publication has another editorial that's even nuttier: Reparations By Way Of Health Care Reform. Not only does the health care bill oppress Christians, it also "redistributes health" to black people. Obama has previously noted that a universal health care bill will disproportionately help people of color because people of color are disproportionately insured. Ergo, the IBD reasons, Obama wants to give the "racial grievance industry" the power to redistribute health benefits as a backdoor route to slavery reparations:

Read the health care bill. It's affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin color...This may be a goal of Obama's health care plan: the redress of health care disparities on the basis of race and the punishment of those believed to be responsible, such as greedy doctors who perform unnecessary tests and procedures and greedy insurance and drug companies lusting for profits...The racial grievance industry under health care reform could be calling the shots in the emergency room, the operating room, the medical room, even medical school. As Terence Jeffrey, editor at large of Human Events puts it, not only our wealth, but also our health will be redistributed.

Sound crazy? Not too crazy for Glenn Beck. Sarah Palin, for once, showed the good sense not to go there.

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Wingnut trivia question: What does the Democratic health care plan have to do with "Season's Greetings" messages at department stores?

Answer: Wingnuts believe that both will lead to euthanasia and abortion-on-demand. Here's Bill O'Reilly on Christmas Under Siege:

What's really going on here is a well-organized movement to wipe out any display of organized religion from the public arena. The secular-progressive movement understands very well that it is organized religion, most specifically Christianity and Judaism, that stands in the way of gay marriage, partial birth abortion, legalized narcotics, euthanasia, and many other secular causes. If religion can be de-emphasized in the USA, a brave new progressive society can be achieved.

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Cross posted as usual at dagblog.com. You can subscribe to all my posts via RSS feed or email.