The Rush To Smear

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Yesterday's National Review Online posted an article by Andrew McCarthy dealing with some of the name calling that has been going on regarding the healthcare bill.  Mort Kondracke has blasted Rush Limbaugh for comparing Democrats to Nazis.  That wasn't one of Rush Limbaugh's more tactful comments, but let's look at it in context. 

According to the article:

"Nancy Pelosi, started this episode by comparing American citizens who oppose Obamacare to the Nazis and asserting that her political opponents were donning "swastikas." (Sen. Barbara Boxer simultaneously ripped Obamacare dissenters for their Brooks Brothers suits -- it's not altogether clear where on the twill the swastika goes.) Pelosi's tactic was the shopworn smear we on the right have dealt with for six decades. There is no conceivable substantive connection between opposition to Obamacare and German National Socialism -- they are antithetical."

The article continues:

"The comparison he drew was a substantive one: between the Democrats' proposal for socialized medicine and the German installation of socialized medicine beginning with Bismarck and reaching its shocking apotheosis with Hitler's National Socialism. (A transcript of what he actually contended is here, and his website has other relevant transcripts, since the argument was reiterated other times during the week.) The point was to show that if Pelosi wanted to engage in Nazi comparisons, the health-care policies of Nazi Germany had far more in common with the health-care policies of the Democrats than with those of the conservative opposition, which wants health care kept private and reforms to be market-based."

The bottom line for me is this.  Politics in America since I have been paying attention has not always been constructive.  Calling people who oppose a policy near and dear to your heart Nazis is tacky.  Comparing proposed legislation to past laws in other countries is informative.  Admittedly, Nazi is a word that stirs things up to the point where it inhibits real debate, but in the case of German socialized medicine, it was accurately used.  I have read the White House emails on healthcare.  They disagree with the wording in the actual bill!  I am not sure an honest debate is possible on this issue.  What needs to happen is that every American needs to read the bill (there are summaries of the bill available that tell you where to look for key points) and make up their own mind.  One of the best I have found is at ClassicalIdeals.com.  We need to do our own research because unfortunately what we are being told is not the truth.

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This page contains a single entry by Granny G published on August 15, 2009 1:06 PM.

Who Are The Uninsured? was the previous entry in this blog.

Just A Note To Regular Readers is the next entry in this blog.

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