The sheep are screaming socialism. Seems I can't swing a dead cat by the tail without hitting some freak of politics whining in public about how Obama has, in six months, apparently turned us into France.
I don't have to tell you as a reader what ridiculous fear mongering crap that is. It's so ludicrous, it doesn't even deserve a response. But we must respond, really.
Obama needs to be defended. Universal health care and the public option needs to be championed. The newest generation of Joe McCarthys need to be exposed Edward R. Murrow style, and the best way to do this is to repeatedly, loudly, and publicly call them out for their lies and distortions.
I encourage you all to write letters to your local newspapers, participate in online forums (and not just here on Kos), and go public with your opinions.
Winning the message war is up to us.
Here's my letter to the Yakima Herald Republic today:
It’s socialism! Run for your lives! Seriously, does the right have any other political play besides telling us all what we should fear?
Perhaps we should start the discussion at the point of failure: laissez faire financial practices that gambled away our retirement security, a profit-based health care system that often has little to do with health, a budget busting war, irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and a lack of investment in our national infrastructure.
Unbridled capitalism coupled with regulatory neglect has served us so well.
But scream socialism at the top of your lungs, Joe McCarthy. Write it in a letter to the Editor and ride the public bus on public roads down to the US Post Office to mail it. While you’re there, pick up your worker-subsidized Social Security or unemployment check, and get your taxpayer-subsidized Medicare/Medicaid prescription filled.
I like all of these socialized services, even those I never use. And I’m willing to pay for them, including and especially universal health care. 46 million Americans with no medical insurance at all is utterly unacceptable. We are a society, right? Not just a collection of competing individuals? Isn’t looking out for other Americans patriotic too?