When the kooks take the stage

[babylonsister]

Nice rant! :D

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/08/14/when_the_kooks_take_the_stage/?s_campaign=8315

When the kooks take the stage
By Scot Lehigh
August 14, 2009


IT’S HARD TO SAY what’s more amusing, the wild-eyed rants at town hall meetings or the conservative attempts to portray those snarling sentiments as genuine mainstream anger about the president’s health care plans.

Some Republicans are gleeful in the hope that the testy town hall encounters will derail Obama’s signature initiative.

Question: Do they really think the country is dopey enough to mistake microwave mobs staging Potemkin Village protests as an accurate expression of true American opinion?

If so, they’re delusional.

Most people have a basic sense of civility. When asking a question of an elected official at a public meeting, they try to do so in a way that is intelligent and reasonably respectful rather than belligerent and boorish.

Not these crowds. The other night, listening to talk radio, I heard a learned political philosopher explain why: You simply can’t be expected to be civil when everywhere around you, tyranny is supplanting liberty in the land.

But alas for the conservative fringers, as a mode of communication, the angry, ill-informed, accusatory questions stop a wee bit short of being truly persuasive. I don’t know many people who say: “See those agitated kooks making daffy charges? I want to be like them.’’

snip//

But even if you weren’t aware of all that, it would be hard to mistake the hostile town hall encounters for a serious barometer of voter sentiment. Sure, some talk-radio types are insisting they are. Lawmakers know better, however. After all, if these folks really spoke for the country, Democrats wouldn’t control Congress, and Obama would never have been elected.

All we’ve learned here is something we already knew: This nation never has to worry about suffering from a shortage of kooks, cranks, and ideologues.

Just don’t try to tell us they are level-headed, mainstream Americans.

[formercia]

1. Land of the free, home of the insane

When England dumped their rif-raff on the shores of the New World, there was a reason.

[Jade Fox]

2. Yes, Town Hall meeting protesters look like idiots and cranks.....

and I think that turns off most sane people, regardless of political persuasion.

Once again the GOP resorts to shoot-yourself-in-the-foot tactics.