Violence only begets violence it's never the answer!

Rowdy town halls turn up the ugly in U.S. health care debate
Posted: August 10, 2009

Photo: Steven Polliard a retired Air Force major and opponent Democratic Party healthcare proposals, shouts at Rep. Ed Perlmutter (O-D) on August 8, 2009 in Rrighton, Colorado. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Kathryn Blaze Carlson

Death threats and shouting matches are drowning out America's debate over President Barack Obama’s health care plan, as town hall meeting after townhall meeting is overtaken by raucous crowds.

The “disruptive” protests — more often by right-wingers who fear what some consider a Big Brother approach to health care delivery — have nabbed headlines across the country and beyond, and was today highlighted in a much-circulated USA Today column by none other than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

In this morning’s piece, the pair assess the damage done by the noisy and violence-riddled protests — protests that have silenced some Democratic senators who traditionally spend their August recess mingling with constituents in their home districts.

“These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves,” Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Steny Hoyer wrote. “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades. Health care is complex. It touches every American life. It drives our economy. People must be allowed to learn the facts.”

Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer’s foray into the tactics of the health care debate has sparked a fury of analysis and commentary.

“Pelosi and Hoyer don’t say opposing health care reform is un-American; they say drowning out debate is,” said Chris Good in his post at The Atlantic’s Politics blog. “Health reform should be ‘subject to so much scrutiny and debate...it is well worth the time it takes to get it right. We are confident that we will get this right,’ they write. Disruption is indisputably one element of the campaign to oppose health care reform. Is it un-American? What is American? Surely these people were all born in America. All of this is happening in America.”Semantics aside, YouTube is rife with fresh evidence of the mob-like protests, showcasing videos of protestors carrying signs with devil horns drawn on lawmakers’ heads, or even President Obama with Adolf Hitler’s moustache.

“Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, who had a town hall meeting disrupted by angry protesters earlier this month, said he had never experienced such emotion in his 15 years of holding such forums. Democratic Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina even had a death threat phoned into his office. A caller said that if Miller supported Obama’s plan, it could cost him his life,” according to a recent post at CNN’s politics site ‘The 44th President: The First Year.”

Meanwhile, former governor of Alaska and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin recently weighed in with her two cents, turning to her Facebook page as her mouthpiece against health care reform and the violence that has accompanied the town halls.

“Such tactics diminish our nation’s civil discourse which we need now more than ever because the fine print in this outrageous health care proposal must be understood clearly and not get lost in conscientious voters’ passion to want to make elected officials hear what we are saying. Let’s not give the proponents of nationalized health care any reason to criticize us,” Ms. Palin wrote.
She went on to say that the elderly and disabled “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.”

In a bid to quash similar portrayals of President Obama’s health care plan, the White House is “taking multiple steps to combat the misinformation," according to Stephanie Condon at CBS News’ Political Hotsheet. "Most recently, it launched a ‘reality check’ Web site to debunk myths. Melody Barnes, the president’s Director of the Domestic Policy Council, specifically addresses the ‘euthanasia” or ‘death panel’ myth, rebutting a video clip of Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) claiming that people will be ‘put to death by their government.’”

Meanwhile, according to MSNBC’s First Read, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, defended the protests, saying: “I think attacking citizens in our country for expressing their opinions about an issue of this magnitude may indicate some weakness in their position on the merits.”

Tomorrow, President Obama will hold his own town hall event in New Hampshire, just days after Dem. Claire McCaskill cancelled her forum because of safety concerns and on the heels of five arrests at Dem. Russ Carnahan event.