I'll start it off. With one of the most incredible things I've ever seen come from a Speaker of the House. (Majority leaders do this crap all the time. See: Reid, Harry.)
Pelosi is a lunatic.
These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. 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.
The first fact is that health insurance reform will mean more patient choice. It will allow every American who likes his or her current plan to keep it. And it will free doctors and patients to make the health decisions that make the most sense, not the most profits for insurance companies.
Reform will mean stability and peace of mind for the middle class. Never again will medical bills drive Americans into bankruptcy; never again will Americans be in danger of losing coverage if they lose their jobs or if they become sick; never again will insurance companies be allowed to deny patients coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
The best part is not the un-American thing (we'll get to that later) it's this. They're ascribing all these "facts" to "reform" right? But in the same editorial they say:
Already, three House committees have passed this critical legislation and over August, the two of us will work closely with those three committees to produce one strong piece of legislation that the House will approve in September.
That's right, all these facts are derived from something that does not exist. There is no specific legislation (HR3200 is one of many and the largest and most likely to advance) yet not only Pelosi but Obama is ascribing that some "reform" is coming that will not only lower costs, but cover all people and improve care. (And not involve the government, even as it becomes the lone declarer of health insurance.)
But. As they say, pick two.
Dissent was patriotic until Jan 20, 2009. Now it's un-American, terrorist and Nazi-like to question your betters in Congress. "Community organizing" to protest anything and everything was the highest form of patriotism, now it's despicable. (Unless you're say, part of Organizing for America and support the President.)
Obama wants, like most on The Left, a single player system but at the same time he also knows and admits it can never work in a market the size of the U.S. as there's no way to shift the cost onto others.
Anyway back to that "drowning out opposing views" good thing the Democrat allies aren't telling people to do exactly that or it'd look pretty bad. When they aren't allegedly assaulting people.
That's all I can muster for now, I'm distracted with other things. I'll be back, this is replacing the Totalitarianism Watch thread btw.
Basically, if it's politics, feel free to use this until we have enough people to split off threads.