Thursday, August 20, 2009

Torturing Freedom of Speech

A piece I wrote yesterday about the so-called "debate" over health care reform is up at Richmond.com.
What the crazed rightwing tools of the insurance companies have been doing to sabotage any chance of an open national discussion taking place this year -- preserving the status quo -- has been upsetting to some who long for reform, but it’s mostly been sickening to those who don’t enjoy observing raw meanness spewed at high volume.

Which, of course, is the goal for the insurance industry’s propagandists who want to delay reform as long as they can. Meanwhile, they want to punish anyone who stands in their way.
Click here to read "Freedom of Speech Gone Wrong."

2 comments:

Scott said...

Rational discussion went out the window, but to be totally truthfull, a lot of views were left out in the cold early on.
Single payer universal health care, as in WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD uses (and the Green Party espouses), kept getting the brush off from the corporate media and the majority of Democrats, including Obama. There could have been a real honest debate with full consideration of options. Instead we got a media circus dominated by sound bites and shout-downs. By the end of it, even the conservative business broadcasters felt sorry for it, and threw in wacky suggestions like free medical school to keep it interesting.
But really, as much as I abhored the Palin 'death panel!' marchers, I was glad that my prediction came true- health care reform will require more reflection on the Western distancing and denial of the realities of death and resource scarcity. In short, this country still needs to learn what freedom really means before we get anywhere, even under Obama.

James Young said...

This post --- "crazed rightwing tools of the insurance companies"; "sabotage any chance of an open national discussion"?!?!? --- is illustrative of Democrat and far-Left arrogance, narcissism, and sanctimony. You can't even entertain the thought that anyone who has concerns over this may be well-informed, and simply possessed of a different view.

Of course, had President Barry's plan for quick passage been realized, even the "discussion" that has occurred would have be avoided. The only "discussion" that people like you can tolerate is a symphony, composed of one note, repeated endlessly, with no counterpoint or harmony.

One would have hoped that you had the self-awareness to recognize it, but I doubt it.