Sympathy for the Protester

“F$#@k you, you well-dressed fascist,” the first protester screamed at me with venom in his voice. He was right about one thing. At that particular event I was well-dressed. “You are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. Their blood is on your hands,” another screamed at me as I entered the facility where we had scheduled a political event for later that day at the GOP convention in New York City a few years ago.

In a perfect world, people wouldn’t yell at a town hall meeting and everyone’s opinion could be heard equally. In a perfect world, people wouldn’t use over-the-top rhetoric when simply expressing their view in an even-handed manner would get the job done.

But life isn’t perfect. When Congress comes steamrolling through with an enormous healthcare proposal that would make radical changes to the system, wants to shove it through ASAP and then makes claims that are on their face patently false — we’ll cover the uninsured AND save money — Americans get a little bent out of shape, justifiably emotional and downright scared.

The most troubling aspect of today’s debate that is no longer about policy is that the proponents of these massive changes to healthcare are not content to air a different viewpoint. No, in order to “win,” the White House and congressional Democrats have to disqualify their opponents. Opponents aren’t just wrong in their eyes; they are disreputable.

So, convinced for years that Republicans were accusing them of being un-American (a false belief), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) penned an opinion piece recently that said people who showed up at congressional town halls to voice their opinion in opposition to the Democrats’ version of healthcare reform were “un-American.”

This is a charge that Pelosi has made about several issues. It is a disturbing political reflex.

In another attempt to not just disagree but to disqualify opposition, Pelosi weirdly claimed protesters at town hall meeting about healthcare were “carrying swastikas.”

Then, magically, a “protester” showed up at Rep. John Dingell’s (D-Mich.) town hall this week carrying a sign that depicted President Barack Obama as Hitler. It was carried on multiple cable shows, such as Rachel Maddow’s, and held up by Keith Olbermann as an example of the Republican protesters they had been warning real Americans about.

The Obama-as-Hitler sign rang a bell with me. Not that I believed the conservative movement was resorting to that, but that somewhere I’d seen that before. Then one of the people I work with pointed out that the Lyndon LaRouche folks were displaying that sign outside of the McPherson Square Metro Station just down the street, and presumably at other stations as well.

That’s right, the LaRouche folks who are radical leftist who want a single-payer healthcare system. About as far away from conservative activists as you could imagine.

Some good work by multiple bloggers (hat tip to Blogprof) uncovered that not only was the sign originally from LaRouche but that the so-called conservative activist at the Dingell town hall was actually a union member and Dingell supporter posing as the very caricature they wanted so badly.

But wait, still the people who oppose Obama’s healthcare plan are in the minority and are just upset they lost the last election, right? Recent polling actually shows the Obama version of healthcare reform is significantly unpopular and the protesters have rising favorables.

So how about a little less vitriol and a little more sympathy for the protesters?