HEALTH CARE HOO HA

CALL TO ACTION : FOILING THE FOIL HATTERS

On Tuesday August 11, in what seemed to be a cross between bull riding and 'Whack A Mole', two U.S. Senators and a President brought civil discourse back to ...well...civil discourse. Senator Arlen Specter (D) of Pennsylvania, Senator Claire McCaskill (D) of Missouri, and President Barack Obama all held Health Care Town Halls in seperate locations. All three managed, with a great deal of effort, to bring the Town Hall format back to it's original intention- freedom of expression for ALL.
The primordial soup of "protesters", consisted of Tea Baggers ( Do they really know what that means ?), Birthers, Deathers, and the all purpose ' Kook For Any Cause' Foil Hatters , or
'Foilers' for short. The organized right wingers were there in droves expressing their hatred, vitriol and racism, all of which was " mercifully free from the ravages of intelligence " (Time Bandits), yet was deftly wrangled into a coherent exchange where citizens were allowed to ask questions from the printed script they held in case the bile they were spewing forth distracted them from what they were supposed to ask. all was well again in America - unless you stepped outside the building.

Outside were posters of Obama as Hitler, the Democratic Nazi Party, Keep Your Laws Off My Body (except for abortion – I asked) and various and sundry examples of ugliness. Some Lyndon LaRouche supporters along with anti-immigration and tort reform. Also a lot of “killing the elderly, euthanasia” type signs. And of course, my favorite – “No Socialism ”.
Evidentlythey don't make the connection that Law Enforcement, Fire Rescue , Public Schools, and Medicare are all socialized.

Folks, this is NOT about healthcare or anything remotely resembling policy or any particular issue. This is about the naked anger of the right wing being out of power and not accepting a black man as President combined with their own racism – it’s thinly veiled at best, but it’s racism. I venture to say that this is the least thinly veiled racism I’ve seen for a long time – they have taken those gloves off.

When people say “I work, I’m not paying for anyone else” – that’s about African-Americans and Latinos - period.
I once asked one woman very calmly – she was calm herself – if she cared about other people besides her own family and loved ones. She looked me in the eyes and said “NO, I don’t”.
I was lost for words, because most of these protesters call themselves "Christians". Can you imagine Jesus saying he didn't give a damn about anyone but his own family? He considered the whole world his family. He was champion of the sick and poor. These "protesters" are champions of rich insurance company CEOs... and some of them don't even know it! Instead of defending everyone's right to be heard, these guys shout down legitimate debate and try to scare and intimidate people. Some are even bringing guns to these events. How is that for following "The prince of peace"? If anti war protesters during the Bush administration had done that they would have been immediately handcuffed and hauled off to jail. And if we hauled them to jail they'd say we were violating their free speech rights. These 'Foilers' are not about defending free speech, they are about destroying it. They are not about defending the poor or the sick., they say "To Hell with them." They are certainly not following the teachings of Jesus or defending the United States constitution or our freedoms.

In my opinion, we (i.e. The Rest Of Us ) are making a mistake by ignoring these people. This is not about the people at these events; it’s about who is controlling them. And that is the wealthy elites who will do anything, including destroying what is left of the democracy we remember, to protect what they have, the corporations who control Congress and who actually rule this country and the extremists who are driven by hatred and racism. They are working together and if we do not develop an effective strategy and new tactics to counter them, this country – and all of us – are doomed. We better pay attention to what is happening right underneath our noses. And then keep in mind that over 100 million people a day are saturated in low-brow, belligerent, junk radio, and think they are listening to "news"....then they show up at Town Halls.
Who is behind the town hall riots ?
The answer is Conservatives for Patients' Rights. Conservatives for Patients Rights, or the CPR, is headed by one Rick Scott – who isn't a doctor – but used to be the CEO of a hospital, and under his watch, his medical administration defrauded Medicare of $1.7 billion through a practice called upcoding, wherein a Medicare patient gets treated, but Medicare is billed for additional tests that never took place. (That's fraud.) Realistically, Conservatives for Patients Rights and Mr. Scott will never need short term loans, and the only reason why they oppose the bill is that they want the money from the program for themselves.

It might be reassuring to say that these people are fringe, the minority, etc. But it’s not just them – it’s the most powerful moneyed interests in this country who are bankrolling and controlling them. The angry mobs are the storm troopers and they are the angriest people I’ve ever seen. They are happy to be controlled and happy to do the bidding of their masters. In my opinion they would be happy to do away with the likes of us, otherwise known as ' you people'.

I urge all of us to rethink our strategy and tactics. Here are a few suggestions:

• We need to do is call call out the corporations and bad actors who are bankrolling these people.

• Instead of trying to debate with extremists who don't want to face facts, our Democratic reps need to rally our own troops. When we held rallies before the election, we did not attract just a few hundred or even a thousand hate-filled screaming malcontents. We brought out hundreds of thousands of Progressives, Independents, and Moderates of all political persuasions who displayed a calm, confident spirit. We must do it again. Our Democratic leadership must stage rallies. We must ask the people who voted for this President to support him again. It's time to counter this hate-filled movement. All these Foilers want to do is dominate others and confuse the issue not fix problems that have been neglected for decades. We must come out in vast numbers to declare that we will not be moved by little tyrants staging temper tantrums nor will we allow them to demonized us. They cannot reverse an election. We must overwhelm them and, yes, dominate them with the facts.
  

• We must cut their numbers in Congress by defeating them again in the Midterms next year.

This must be a wake-up call to us – not something to ignore. This will not go away and indeed will only get worse. But, keep one thing in mind, they're playing Checkers, and we're Playing Chess.

Stay Vigilant. Stay Strong.

LANCE MACHO