My last post about the gun slingers was that I have no gun.  This post is another perspective on the people who do have guns.  It's an example of the Right putting forward an argument against the Left that perfectly illustrates exactly what they are doing.  If you think about this, there are innumerable examples and you can add them to the comments if they come to mind.  It's the old "pissing down your back and tellling you it's raining" scenario. 

One of the latest example is the Death Panels.  The suggestion is that the government will create Death Panels if health care reform is passed!  These already exist.  Although I doubt there is a committee in the insurance industry that actually decides this on a case-by-case basis, I do believe there are committees who decide, based on finances, who to insure and who not.  The unprofitable rejects are denied coverage and effectively handed a death sentence.  To find these committees, you have to consult the actuaries.

To return to my original point about "them" taking away my gun, simply ask yourself, or anyone within ear shot, or maybe interject when you overhear some drivel about how the Democrats are going to take away their guns, "Yeah, I've seen dozens of people with guns at these town hall meetings.  Which one was disarmed, did you say?  Which one was arrested?  Is the NRA going to provide an attorney for them?  What, they were not arrested or disarmed?  I thought you said the Left would take away their guns.  It seems these gunslingers wore their weapons and then went home with their guns.  So when is this seizure going to happen?"  Interesting proposition though, isn't it.  It's got a lot of people reactive to the notion whe are so emotionally charged they cannot see what it right in front of them.  No one has been arrested or disarmed.  It kind of defeats the argument they will be.

BTW, I'm curious to know if the NRA is going to encourage Plaxico Burress to become a spokeperson for sagun safety, and whether they will launch a campaign to teach responsible gun ownership and use.  What, you think because he's black they are not interested?  Well, I don't <i>know</i> about that, but I do know their silence is deafening around the incident. 

Sometimes when people want to go to the extreme, you just have to let them, encourage them, help them see what it is they are saying by taking it all the way.  Often times when they actually get to the place they wished to go, they discover they really did not want to be there.

Many months ago, I suggested that, if Rush Limbaugh declared he was the Leader of the GOP and no one denied it, then we should announce our agreement that Rush Limbaugh was Leader of the GOP!  Within days Rahmn Emanuel said as much, it caught fire, and now Rush doesn't go there anymore.  It should be noted, however, that there are still no unapologatic challengers to his authority as Leader of the GOP.  No one has yet declare Rush Limbaugh is not their Fearless Leader without calling up his show to apologize later.   So I'm not sure he is not their leader.  Now, I'm not saying Rahm Emanuel stole my idea either ... I'm just sayin'.  Letting the Right maintain their poorly planned paths can have a positive effect once they see how silly they look when they get there.  Let's not hold them back.  Give them what they want!

What I think is relevant now, is to allow the agitators at the town halls to go farther down that road of Obama as Hitler, the Democratic Party as Nazis.  No, no, no, I'm not suggesting we dress up as Nazis, and march in goose step, although that sure seems absurd, but maybe, in their eagerness to be the victim and oppressed, we can provide them with the grey striped pajamas that victims of the Holocaust were provided in the real Death Camps.  It is what they are suggesting to the American public, after all.

When I considered this idea, to give the agitators the apparel of the real victims of the Nazis, I asked my self, what kind of symbol do we put on their shirt?  Do they get a yellow Star of David?  Well, while there certainly are Jewish people among the agitators, being Jewish is certainly not representative of these emphatic protesters at the town halls.  Do they get the symbol of being gay?  No, they are not sexually oriented to being gay in any way that I can see, nor do they have either a gay or cheerful demeanor.  How about the symbol for the intellectuals or local politicians?  Nope.  That doesn't fit either.  It seems that these agitators lack the intellectual curiousity that is required to be considered an intellectual.  They appear to limit their exposure to a small network of sources and then only to accept a very limited set of answers.  Socialists!  That 's it!  No, it's really not.  The Left are the socialists, which is another one of the accusations the Right makes when they get tired of saying Nazi.  Socialists, historically speaking, were actually also victims of the Holocaust.  Socialists and Nazis just did not get along. 

So we could end the debate here, but let's take it a bit further, just to rule out any possibility the Democrats are Nazis.  Stay with me.  This is important.  Let's keep asking questions.  Are the agitators of Slavic ethnic origin, the half-human Eastern Europeans.  No, the protesters do not appear to be of that region either in any predominant way.  Hmmm. 

GOT IT!!!  The agitators are the mentally and physically challenged.  Those are the targets of these Nazi/Democrats.  Sarah Palin just declared the healthcare reformers are after her son, Trig.  They want to take his life.  What symbol was assigned to their death camp uniforms?  I don't know, but Sarah referenced a Death Panel! Death Camp, Death Panel, I think I'm onto something here!  Yes, this is it!  I knew it!  Oh.... wait..., who was that Kennedy that just passed away, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.  Didn't she found the Special Olympics?  That organization is not about exterminating the handicapped but celebrating their lives.  The Special Olympics encourages the handicapped to come out and live large, to leave their confines and enter society.  I guess that doesn't fit either.  Okay, I'm done.  There really is no way these agitators can be compared to any of the victims of the Nazis and the Holocaust.

It is not my intention to diminish the horror of the Holocaust.  It is inappropriate, in my humble opinion, to characterize the healthcare reform, or anything less then wholesale genocide, as in any way resembling Hitler, the Nazis, and the Holocaust.  But I believe it might help people see just how absurd and deceitful the Right has been in their attempts to label the Left as having any resemblance at all to those atrocities.  Adopting those grey striped clothes might expose the absurd suggestion these agitators are making for what it is. Maybe they would become to embarassed and ashamed to make such a mockery of the tragedy that was the Holocaust.  If the agitators were to portray themselves as the actual victims of the Holocaust, in their clothes, people would realize those grey striped pajamas do not fit them at all.  We have not yet formed the word to describe the fantastic distance their words are from anything genuine, even "dining room table" could not describe it, but at least we are moving in the right direction in response to these inane comparisons.  

Maybe, once the characterizations are exposed as unfounded in any real, meaningful way, we can have a reasonable discussion regarding how to obtain better healthcare for the people in this country.  We do not need to be discussing parallels between the Obama Administration and Nazi Germany that clearly do not exist, we need to debate whether we will develop a system to allow everyone to obtain medical care tahat does not discriminate against their economic status.

{Note:  This is a re-post that received no comments or recommends, so I revived it.  If it's too much, I welcome that feedback, but I am truly disgusted with this tactic of portraying Obama as in any way comparable to Hitler.  Obama has no resemblance to Hitler and these agitators bear no resemblance to victims of the Holocaust!}

Nothing about my apparel stands out.  I'm not wearing any accessories, no rifle, no pistols or knives.  I'm hoping someone will hear me when I say, without any rage or bitterness.  People are sick.  People are dying.  We can avoid this if we believe we are our brothers' keeper, that we should be Good Samaritans, that their suffering is preventable and their lives matter.  But if I go to a town hall meeting and say these things, will the MSM give me a chance to speak on camera, or will they be obsessed with the desires of people to attract attention to themselves and intimidate?  Will they listen to me, or will they cater to the man with the gun?  Does my freedom of speech require that I carry a firearm these days to exercise that right?

These people with their weapons on display, do they really advocate for insurance companies?  Are they in favor of people losing coverage when they file claims?  Are they supportive of the unrestrained premium increases these past few years that are unrelated to any actual need or cost, but simply the response to a greater demand by shareholders for higher profits?  Are these gunslingers so determined to prevent people from seeing a doctor, any doctor at all? 

It's hard to say.  Some just want to wear the weapons on their sleeves.  Some just want to be seen on TV.  Some want to impose their will on others despite their being in a minority.  These are not real Americans.  They loathe the fact more people favor taking care of one another then favor the ownership society, the Go-Get-Your-Own society, the society where you are owned in an insidious way by a handful of companies, if you wish to have assistance with health care costs that are now out of reach for a large percentage of Americans.

I do not have a gun.  Will the media take any notice of me?  Am I newsworthy if I represent the overwhelming majority of people who want reform of our healthcare system, but do not carry a gun?  The answer really just boils down to this, what they show on the news is the news.  Either they can report the rational voices of the majority and how Congress is losing their will to include a public option, or they can broadcast to the world that one man has a gun.  Hundreds of people attended the event.  They are ignored.  But there was this one guy, and he had a gun.  I do NOT have a gun.  Why is that not news?

Want a way to express your outrage?  Give money to Democracy For America.  I'm not aligned with DFA in any way, but every time I hear Howard Dean talk healthcare, I know the good doctor gets it.  He was half of the day in 100 seconds right here on TPM today, 8/17/2009, http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=3219249 Dr. Dean stated quite admantly, reform without a public option is no reform at all.  The hostess at MSNBC, dr. Nancy, who interviewed him suggested that "public option" was a dirty word, and Dr. Dean shot right back saying that was propaganda.  Dr. Nancy had to take it back.  That's a leader.  He's speaking truth to power and we should give him our support, now and generously!

It's obvious the Dems lack the will to drive home a healthcare bill of any substance.  It is obvious the American people have failed to get their attention.  Evidently, if you are not carrying a gun these days, no one will pay any attention.  But it's all about money really.  The gunslingers are props to which the MSM is attracted in their quest for ratings and entertainment.  Unless Progressives get their hands on a bazooka or a tank, we have little chance of getting any headlines at the town hall.  The gunslingers are taking all the air out of the room where we might have something important to say.  All we can manage is "Look!  He's got a gun!!!"

My proposal is to flood DFA with dollars.  The Dems will look jealously at the DFA coffers and DFA will distribute those funds in a way that comports with our desires related to healthcare reform.  Maybe it will buy ads, maybe it will contribute to the politicians who advocate single payer, or a public option.  Frankly, it is a way to vote TODAY for a third party.  If DFA reports it received tens of thousands of dollars this week by people who favor a public option, it will make the news and it will get the attention of the Democrats who seem to have forgotten why they were successful in 2008, even if the rest of the stories were pictures of gunslingers.  The 2008 election was more then a rebound from Dubya, it was a refutation of what the Republicans have been doing the past eight years.  They ALL lost!

It's a stretch.  I doubt anything is going to happen because I wrote a little blog this evening, but I feel better suggesting a practical way to change the direction of healthcare reform, and I agree with Dr. Dean, "Healthcare reform without a public option is no reform at all!"  Send DFA a few bucks and suggest it to others and let's see what happens.  It's a much safer alternative to attending a town hall meeting at the OK Corral.  It seems likely the money wil be put to good use.