Our Outstandingly Gullible Electorate

It seems that no day passes now when I don't read about or see a video of some group of right wingnuttia disrupting a town hall meeting on health care. It's obvious that they don't really care about discourse, I get that. What is painful, disgusting and very disappointing is how many are seniors who should know better.

The practice of astro-turfing has been perfected by so-called conservative groups and aided and abetted by the likes of Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs and of course old EL RUSHBO. What get's me is how many folks buy into it. The most ironic of these instances is the old folks telling their representatives not to let the government mess with their medicare. Who do they think is administering it? It is confounding to say the least.

After watching a couple of these town halls I have lost faith in a good portion of our people and a great portion of our seniors. I have personal experience with this as well since we live in a retirement community. Old people can be as dumb, as uninformed and as nasty as any young punk you've ever met. Add to this several decades of racism, bigotry and ignorance, and the outcome is disturbing. I've seen it first hand in our community, so the events in the town halls should not come as a surprise I suppose.

Still. I am ashamed of and pissed off at my generation that seems so easily lead down the garden path by what to me are blowhards, fanatics and charlatans. Faux News, in the person of Rupert Murdoch, has had a very detrimental effect on our country and our civil discourse. Instead of objective reporting, fact based editorializing and views from both sides, a large group of our population is willingly subjecting itself to outright rabble rousing 24/7. It's pathetic to watch what should be otherwise dignified and respected seniors turned into rabble.

So let's get set for more pictures of e-mail and television political evangelist inspired shouting matches at the town halls. After all that's what the insurance companies, big pharma and the politicians that take their money want. The less logic, common sense and facts that are discussed the better for them. Because anyone with half a brain that sees how much money is diverted to non-patient expenditure in our health care system would understand there has to be a better way. And that same person would do their very best to inform themselves and push their representatives to act in the country's best interest and not in the interest of the health care industry.

What is most galling of all, is that the folks out there screwing up even having a discussion already have health care through an employer or the VA or yes, the government in the form of medicare and medicaid. So somehow these morons get the time and energy to come out and shout incoherences at officials and the debate ( a much needed one) about smart health care reform is silenced.

If we let these pushers of fear and animosity win this fight then this country is no better off than when we had Bush for a president. Think back a minute will ya? We voted that guy's party out of the white house, out of the Congress and out of the Senate. Are we going to see the victories in the form of tangible results. With the banking industry reaping profits, foreclosures increasing, jobs continuing to be cut, a failure to bring some form of equity to our health care system would be intolerable.

I'm hoping that the vast silent majority of people are more intelligent, thoughtful and forward thinking than the right wing throwbacks currently driving the media focus on health care. If not, the inequities already being reinforced by the bank bailouts will work their way into the very being of our citizens.

I wonder what all the screwballs will think when their premiums rise another 25% and their so-called co-insurance goes up to $15,000.

RT