Do you wonder why the health care "debate" has veered off into what seems to be Crazytown? Why are we talking about completely beyond-the-pale, over-the-top, around-the-bend stuff? How is it that "Obama=Hitler," "death panels for granny" and "it'll kill the disabled" are making the rounds? Are these loony charges merely an attempt to misinform and/or confuse folks? Are they an attempt to scare the low-information voter away from health care reform? Well, while they certainly can have that effect, these seemingly absurd talking points are actually something far more sinister. It's true that they've been attached to the health care debate; however:
News flash--This. Has. Nothing. To. Do. With. Health Care.
While they're ostensibly about health care, the real purpose--the references to Hitler, to death panels, to doing away with the elderly and the disabled, the references to paying for abortions--all of these are all designed to work together as a crystal clear dog whistle to Christian fundamentalists, a whistle I can still barely hear from my experiences as a fundy in my youth.
Follow me over the jump as I explain...
When I was much younger than I am now, I was quite the religious fundamentalist. I attended church religiously (heh), every Wednesday and twice on Sundays, from the mid 60s to the late 70s. As a member of the American Baptist Church at the time, I can remember the moment when politics first entered our church doors.
It was 1979, a few years after Roe v. Wade. One night, our Sunday evening service offered something different. Instead of the usual fare of three or four songs, the passing of the plate, and a friendly sermon, we were treated to a film.
The film was Whatever Happened to the Human Race, a production by Dr. Francis Schaeffer, his son Frank Schaeffer (yes, that Frank Schaeffer), and Dr. C. Everett Koop (yes, the same guy who eventually became Reagan's Surgeon General).
Here's how their argument ran:
- First, the film made the case that abortion was only the first step in devaluing human life. According to Koop and Schaeffer, this was clear evidence that our society was shifting from Judeo-Christian values (which would hold that life is absolutely sacred) and toward "secular humanist" values, which would hold the value of human life as more relative, taking into consideration such morally vague ideas as "quality of life."
- Schaeffer and Koop then made explicit connections between abortion and the devaluing of human life, which would therefore logically lead to infanticide and euthanasia.
- They further made the connection to Hitler, positing that the (secular) natural selection theory posed by Darwin could easily lead to Hitler's concept of a master race, and the destruction of human lives that followed.
After that film debuted in church, politics walked right in the door, and it's been sitting in the front pew ever since.
The basic line of argument has been refined over time in fundamentalist churches, but it has changed little over the past thirty years. I still remember and recognize it well, and it still give me chills when I realize what the cynical fomenters of The Crazy are really doing here. Let's see:
- Abortion fears--check
- Infanticide for the disabled--check
- Euthanasia for the elderly--check
- References to Hitler and/or Nazis--check
See what they're doing here? It doesn't matter if it has no basis in reality. It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense to you.
They're not talking to you and me, and they're not really talking about health care, either. This message is not
for us. It has
nothing to do with health care and everything about trying desperately to re-energize the fundamentalist base. That's it. They're hoping to get the religious fundamentalists fired up enough
against Obama as a scary, secular humanist-type, through the
proxy of health care, that the troops can be counted on to turn out in droves as phone-banking, precinct-walking foot soldiers for the Rs in 2010. The people pulling the strings don't give two hoots about what happens with health care (well, sure, they'd love to kill health insurance reform, but that's only secondary); their
real concern is with carrying out the classic, tried-and-true, fire-up-the-base, Rovian strategies in their bold power grab for the midterm elections. That's the real game here, health care be damned.
So I'd humbly suggest that, whatever we do to fight for health care (and we must fight like h*ll for health care!), we should stop trying to address the crazy arguments put forward head on, because the more we rebut these crazy allegations the more we accept the framing that re-inforces fundamentalist fears in the first place.
The point of this diary is to recognize the dog whistle, not to offer the perfect means to counteract it. I leave it to the Frameshoppers of this world to figure out how best to reframe the discussion in ways that capture the attention of those on the right who believe that all life is sacred (and whose beliefs are being used, and twisted, for cynical ends). Surely, those of us who are seeking health care for all, including public health care, can do it. Surely we can make a stronger case for the sanctity of all life, through health care for all, than the Republicans can.
Can't we?