Stopping The Healthcare Violence
To put it quite simply and directly, the issue is not Healthcare Reform! The issues that encourages the kind of violence that we have read about or witnessed, is racism, anti Obama (anything) and political power-playing. (Jimmy Carter was right!) If Barack Obama was not the president, the Senate and House of Representatives would have stuck to relevant issues on this important bill, both before and after the historic passage and signing.
Instead, many Republican elected officials purposely misinformed the public about the content and rationale of the bill. Many vowed to kill the bill before knowing its content. They almost unanimously declared that they would reject the bill, even if amendments or changes were made.
Before the 2008 Presidential Election, right-winged Republicans stated that Barack Obama was a left-winged radical Liberal who was not an American, but a Kenyan. They called him a Muslim, The antichrist, an abomination, a terrorist, a communist and a fascist. Part of the intent was to help build up fear and hate among potential voters.
During political rallies, many republican supporters and some democrats have taken this form of political rhetoric as fact and to the extreme, (as I believe it was the intended result,) including shouting out racial slurs, displaying racial signs and threatening Obama with physical violence. Few, if any of the republican have voiced objections to this kind of behavior. Why? because they represent their base supporters.
After the 2008 Presidential Election, republicans began denouncing Barack Obama before the Inauguration on January 20, 2009. The ‘Birther’ gained more momentum. Birthers and some racists urged others to not recognize him as a duly elected U.S. president. At least one uniformed soldier refused to be deployed to Iraq, stating that he was not his Commander-in-Chief. Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that he hoped that President Obama would fail.
During the Healthcare Reform Bill debates, before and after the voting took place, some Democratic leaders in the Senate and House were targeted with intimidation and racial slurs. Some were spat upon. Others had bricks hurled through their windows. Still others received written threats to them and their family for supporting the Healthcare Reform Bill.
Healthcare Reform is an important issue. Issues were discussed. Debates, changes and refinements were made. But the Republican Party decided to say, ‘no’ to anything when it came to a vote. Instead, filling their supporters with misinformation, they added fuel to racial, religious and regional discrimination, hate and divisions that we have not seen since the Civil Rights era.
I am a proud American! I believe in the values that this country was built upon. I also believe that the willingness to change is a part of what makes this country great. Our Constitution allows us to make these changes and refinements.
We have come a long way since the Civil Rights era. Electing an African-American as president adds hope and tells the world that our words, written in are Constitution, are sincere. We still have a long way to go! We have a good chance to get closer. But those elected officials who would try to bring us back to an era where we treated others with inequality, discrimination and disrespect makes me less optimistic about our chances. I hope that the Republican Party wakes up and realizes that what they are doing is disruptive and destructive to the stability of our country.
William Phifer
Billp47's Blog 
Leave a comment