As nearly everyone in the political universe has noted by now, President Barack Obama got disrespected Wednesday night. If Congress were Parliament and the President were Prime Minister, the guy who called him a liar wouldn't really have been out of line, would scarcely have been noticed. Heckling of each other from the back benches is more of a time-honored practice among our elected English brethren. They do tend to be somewhat more erudite about it.
So why get hot and bothered by the jackassery of a single Congressman from the Party of No? I think it has to do with the truckloads of lies and despicable slurs dropped on Obama in the past few months, many of them overtly racist. Our fury at Rep. Addison "Joe" Wilson's blurted "You lie!" is not just a response to him, but to the never-ending feces-throwing by the GOP and a right-wing media engaged in a full-court smear fest of our first African American President. How many of the death threats the President has received that can be chalked up to this spray of attacks is anybody's guess. It's not all about racism, of course. In the bizarre world of right-wing delusion, scarcely any Democrat in the White House can escape charges of "socialism," no matter what his views.
But whether it's racist tropes or moronic red-baiting, the right-wing media and way too many supposedly honorable Republicans have done nothing to tone down this rancid display. Plus the fact that if a Democratic Representative had yelled "You lie!" during a Bush speech, she'd still be doing time in a secret prison. So, the looks and words directed at Representative Wilson surely are somewhat based on this outrageous spectacle we've witnessed for months, not just his screech.
Happily, Wilson has already gotten what we can hope is the first round of a well-deserved comeuppance. He got dagger stares from Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden and a lot of boos from that part of the media not (yet) beholden to Rupert Murdoch. Best of all a bunch of money has been raised for his opponent in the next election. That two-word outburst could be the most expensive Wilson ever makes in his life. Welcome to the viral smackdown, Congressman.
But, as diarist Frank wisely says, let's not let this screamer steal the headlines for the next few days. Because that was not what Wednesday night was about; it's not what all the wrangling has been about for the past several months. As President Obama pointed out, doing something about our broken health care system is not an issue that just appeared on the scene. Efforts have been made for decades. But because of past obstructionism, uncounted numbers of American have died, gone bankrupt, lived misery-filled lives, all because they were denied medical treatment based solely on their inability to pay for it.
We shouldn't allow one of the latest cohort of obstructionists to divert us from the task at hand. As Frank put it:
Now is not the time to be distracted again. Now is the time to organize, and support health care reform. I don't know if we get all that we want. Quite possibly not. But if we let people like Wilson steal our thunder again, we will most certainly not get what we want.
Yes, take action against Wilson, by supporting his opponent. But tonight, get your anger at him out of your system. Then, take Obama's energy in his speech and make it your own. Show up at rallies that are being planned. Keep calling Congress.
Don't let some jerk derail you.
We'll have plenty of time to derail that jerk over the next 14 months.
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[Update]: As of 11:15 p.m. PDT, ActBlue has tallied $72,178 for Rob Miller, Wilson's foe in the next election. Kossacks for Democrat Rob Miller have raised $38,474 of that total.