The title of this diary has been borrowed from a must-read Op-Ed posted yesterday on Truthout.org.
The focus of its author, William Rivers Pitt, was on Mike Huckabee's despicable speech at the Value Voters Summit, held in Washington DC this past weekend.
The "Summit" featured the usual suspects, all present and proselytizng. Included in the line-up of speakers was the Succubus from Wasilla, "No-Nothing" Newt and "No-Hands" Christine O'Donnell. Then there was the Bullshit Barrage Band of Bachmann, Bauer & Bennett, with the HMS Pinheads (Hannity, Schlafly and Mitt) wiping up the rear.
Said Pitt of the mob and its mood:
"So, yeah, it was pretty standard stuff, given the roster of speakers who made the scene. But at one point during the event, new ground was broken in truly astonishing fashion. One becomes accustomed to cruel, insensitive, hate-filled rhetoric from the kind of people who dwell in this particular region of politics, but when Mike Huckabee took the stage, a whole new standard was set."
And here is the gist of Mr. Huckabee's barn-burner of a speech that earned him a standing ovation from the red-meat mob:
"It sounds so good, and it's such a warm message to say we're not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition," Huckabee explained at the Value Voters Summit today. "Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, "I'd like to buy some insurance for my house." He'd say, "Tell me about your house." "Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I'd like to insure it today." And he'll say, "I'm sorry, but we can't insure it after it's already burned." Well, no pre-existing conditions."
So according to Huckabee, a human being who is a heart disease or cancer sufferer (or survivor) is as worthless as a "burned-down" house.
Nice.
Pitt mentions the fact that over 1/3rd of all Americans currently suffer from at least one of just five potentially life-threatening pre-existing conditions (heart disease, cancer,diabetes, Parkinson's and Multiple Sclerosis). If Huckabee had it his way, at least 51 million uninsured Americans would perish from these and scores of other diseases and he wouldn't give a flying shit. Ironically, Republicans recently demanded that Alan Grayson retract his statement claiming "they (the Republicans) just want us to die." If you thought Grayson was on the edge with that remark, better think again.
Pitt's conclusions about Huckabee and his Wingnut Sturmabteilung may be frighteningly prescient:
"All of them (the uninsured sick), in short, every single one of them, can basically just go die in Mike Huckabee's world. They are not worthy of coverage, treatment or consideration. The five diseases I listed account for well over a third of the American population, and if Mike Huckabee or someone who agrees with him somehow becomes president someday, those millions of people should just dig their own graves and lie down in them.
Yeah, that's why I'm not polite to these people. My wife has multiple sclerosis, and Mr. Huckabee this weekend compared her to a burned-down house. My wife is a vibrant, active woman who deals with a terrible, terrifying disease that costs upwards of $50,000 a year to treat. Thankfully, my wife was already insured through work when she was diagnosed, but there are many thousands of people out there with MS who have no insurance, or who won't have insurance when they get diagnosed. If Huckabee has his way, people with pre-existing conditions will be treated as burned-down houses and essentially left to die.
To hear a man who gets treated like a legitimate voice in American politics basically consign my wife and millions of other Americans to suffering and death is to hear nothing more or less than flat-out hate speech from a presidential candidate. What Mike Huckabee suggested is tantamount to eugenics, to the extermination of "weaker" people simply because they are ill.
If this kind of talk isn't enough to convince Republicans that the fringe of their party is to be avoided at all costs, then nothing in the world will. There have to be at least a few unwell Republicans in the country, right? There have to be some Republicans with heart trouble, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's or MS, right? If so, those people had better start digging that grave for themselves, especially if they are stupid enough to support Mike Huckabee or anyone else who agrees with him.
Be polite to these people if that's your nature. It is not in mine, especially after the display this past weekend. These people are the sick ones, the ones with pre-existing conditions, and they should be barred from holding public office by the voters because of it. They are all sick bastards, and I have no interest in being nice about it. Do you know anyone with heart trouble, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's, MS, or some other illness like these? Maybe Alzheimer's? If so, you shouldn't be nice, either. Someday, it may be you on the wrong end of such a diagnosis, and if people like Huckabee and his ilk have their way, dig a grave and lie down in it. You're a burned-down house, and your country has no use for you."
Of course, if Preacher Huckabee and his colleagues had their way, Atheists would be denied health coverage, too, since they’re just going to Hell, anyway.
But come on, now - it’s not as if ole “Huck Fin” (as they call him in Vichy) is actually advocating a form of forced euthanasia of the infirm a la Auschwitz...right?
Right.
In place of death camps, this pious putz of a preacher expects sick people to die,
but on their own dime.
In fact, the Fuhrer practiced a far more crude and costly form of genocide compared to the one promoted by this man of God, Preacher Huckabee - a once and future Republican Presidential candidate.
But you know those Repugnicans - insidiously subtle, and always talking “budget, budget, budget!”
There will be no Argumentum ad Hitlerum suggested here.
Not even a glimmer of Lex ad Godwinus should be gleaned.
For in the Neo-Republican Party, advocating the mass murder of your own countrymen has simply become a fashion statement - de rigueur.
So no "H" word permitted.
but I'll "betcha"if that other guy had spoken at the Value Voters Summit, his standing "O" wouldn't have been any more impressive than the one given to Huckabee.
Again, I urge you to read Mr. Pitt's full Op-Ed.
NOTE: (A sincere thank you is in order to my friend PB for discovering Mr. Pitt's Op-Ed and passing it on to me, and others)