Kulamiena wrote:
Republicans (well the non religious right nutjobs anyway) are afraid to speak out because they will be either called racists (Carter, Rangel, etc) for any opposition to Obama or associated with the media's darlings Palin & Limbaugh.
Or, more commonly, attacked by other Republicans for not being "conservative" enough.
Kulamiena wrote:
For example, in every public event dealing with health care Obama revisits the subject of 'death panels' and his rhetoric has gotten stronger on the subject. I doubt there's more than a handful of people who believe that there was ever a plan with 'death panels' (although the informed know that the basis for the accusation was the necessity for rationing combined with the 'end of life' counseling called for in one of the House bills and since removed). But by continually referring to them as the Republican's best argument against reform, President Obama is casting all opposition into the same stupid/insane light as Palin/Limbaugh.
There were far more than a handful of people attempting to use death panels as an argument against a public plan. Whether they belived it or not is irrelevent. If you're spouting it, you either believe it or think that the listener is so stupid as to believe it. Neither of which bodes well for conservatives at the moment.
As for the basis of the death panel bullshit, you're wrong. It was entirely based on the fact that people opposed to a public plan had absolutely no valid argument to offer that would gain traction (not that there were none, but that they were apparently too stupid to articulate them). No version of the proposed bill mandated end of life counseling, it simply paid for it, something that many Republicans have supported until right now.
Kulamiena wrote:
Democrats, on the other hand, have become increasingly apathetic as time passes and none of their major issues are addressed: college kids & Somalia, social liberals and gay rights, libertarian-leaners and wire-tapping/privacy, many who wanted partisanship to be ended or at least lessened, and others. Also, I'd like to believe that there are still moderate Democrats out there who are bothered by the deficit and questioning the funding in the healthcare reform bills as inadequate. And finally, the whole Pelosi/Reid still being in so much control (helped by Obama not putting a detailed healthcare reform proposal forward) isn't helping dispel the apathy.
I agree with you for the most part up until the last sentence. Like them or not, Polosi and Reid have as much control as is warranted. They're the Speaker and Majority Leader respectively, not some random Democrat schmuck. It's not like they're are dictating Presidential policy.
Kulamiena wrote:
It was somewhat predictable that Democrats would become apathetic; too many of them were 'true believers' without any grounding in reality.
What? I've never been a Democrat, so I probably just don't have an understanding of what a true believing demcrat is supposed to be.
Kulamiena wrote:
My hope is that what we are seeing on the Republican side will lead to a schism between the conservative, strict constitutionalists and the theocracy-seekers within the party. At this point all that needs to happen is one of those groups to step back and disavow the label 'Republican'.
Whichever group actually did it would become irrelevent, which I would completely support if it were the nutjobs, but I'd hate to see moderate Republicans lose whatever small amount of influence they had because they thew a tantrum and left the Party.
