I'm happy that HCR has passed. Is it everything that I would like, no, but it is a start a foundation from which additional improvements can be made. It will cover a good number of those left uncovered and begins the process to reel in some of the more heinous practices of the Health Insurance industry. The next battle appears to be jobs, then financial reform but it appears that we're in for a very hard slog. Evidence of how hard a slog starts below.
Congresswoman Giffords' office was vandalized in the wee hours after HCR was passed, about 0240 in the morning. No note, no graffitti, yet after the subject was written about in the daily paper, here's what is being said in the comments section attached to the article:
Here's an example of what is going on, remember this caveat, Tucson is considered to be a liberal bastion of thought in Arizona.
http://azstarnet.com/...
for those of you that just want some of the highlights....
don y. (1745)11 hours, 42 minutes ago
aint it amazing? all these small minded people who were to stupid to realize that elections in this country are what forces change. for 50 years, the people who count have been victimized by a few. now we are being heard.
WE ARE HERE, AND AINT GOING AWAY. GET USED TO IT!
and another sampling
Bill B. (4485)11 hours, 36 minutes ago
they have now taken the first steps in making the average citizen a criminal.. its going to be a long road, many won't buy the insurance, many won't pay the fine, they'll tag you like a cow for slaughter.. ready to take your implant??? Its not going to be long.. oh this is for the fraud and the immigration.. yeah right.. and with this bill do they have cart blach to your bank account? Will this make you an IRS criminal? If you don't buy in your fined sizable fines.. oh this is going to be interesting.
and more....
8 hours, 57 minutes ago
QuoteIf you've read the history of the development of Nazi Germany, you can see parallels between the growth of the inconsolable Right and the Brown Shirts.
Aside from the extermination of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and Slavs among others in National Socialist Germany(a left wing regime like Stalin's), what do you disagree with in the Nazi platform? Hitler was an environmentalist, vegan and war-mongerer. he had car companies too. Eerie, huh... (Obama has expanded a two front war to a four front war). I am not right or left, I just want you and yours out of my life and out of my pocket. Go back to Russia...umm, maybe that won't work since they are more capitalist than the US now.
and perhaps the chart topper
8 hours, 52 minutes ago
Thank you Demacraps, Now I can quit my job, stop paying taxes and let all you stupid bleeding hearts support me (and my dog).
As I already am struggling to make ends meet, to be told "YOU WILL buy this" or go to jail/be fined kinda pi$$es me off. And to know that I will be taxed even more to cover all the worthless NON working people in this country (Whites, Blacks, Hispanic, Native American and Asian)Not to mention millions of illegals (who will soon get amnesty) has brought me to voice my opinion..."$crew you..
I went from Dem. look on life to Rep. overnight!!! Not all Democraps (my new term) wanted this and to blatantly oppose the public MAJORITY just to satisfy an agenda is tyranny and therefore ANTI-American.
OH and Dems. wait till the rest of the country does what I did today....I called in sick and gave my two week notice!!! SUPPORT ME NOW!!!
There are plenty of excellent comments that attempt to shout down the hate and those few brave souls interjecting a notion of sanity into all of this "discussion". The point needs to be made that we need to reduce our own name calling (although I do love a good jibe and snark when I can get it in, which means that I am just as guilty) and keep to debating the merits of what is involved and why it is important. In the face of all this vitriol, we need to not respond in kind because all it does is devolve into a "he started it" diatribe that ruins the point that there needs to be discourse, needs to be a difference of opinion, that we have to bootstrap our fellow citizens into civility and disarm them from their fear. Railing at them will simply push them deeper into the arms of those feeding their fear already.
Things may very well get worse before they get better if the acts of vandalism and social bullying are not brought to heel. The Right Wing hate machine is revved up and looking for anything to justify their actions; even to the point of saying that the liberals have brought this on themselves.
In a way, I think that is what wounds this country the most; it is the fact that there are so many people who are simply afraid, afraid to think for themselves, afraid of change, afraid of the future, afraid of the hard choices that lie ahead because there are no easy answers to some of these problems. They simply want someone to blame and be told what to think, so they can go happily watch another episode of American Idol. Calling them names is simply too easy, we have to remove that fear and maybe, we can start being Americans again.