The International Writers Magazine - Our Tenth Year: Reality Check

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Un-American is Un-American • James Campion "Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American." 'Un-American' Attacks Can't Derail Health Care Debate Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer

There is stupid, insipidly moronic, and then there is the above.
    In what can best be described as a barely masticated brain poof, the Speaker of The House and its Majority Leader decided it would be a good idea to deftly illustrate how arguments can be utterly bereft of reason while simultaneously driving home the point of their opponents. If nothing else, it is a miraculous feat. Not sure it gets us any closer to supporting Universal Healthcare, but nonetheless...

    If there has ever been a point to America it is to drown out opposing views. It fueled the Declaration of Independence, sparked a revolution, erected a constitution and inspired a series of amendments, motivated generations to expand the borders, crushed the secession of the South, supplanted the human condition with industry, and invaded nearly every hemisphere on the planet.

    However, it is now official that no matter what bleating dink is in charge of this government of ours, there seems to be this prevailing thought that if you're not on board with the agenda, you are un-American.
    No, I'm sorry; "simply un-American".
    Here's some simple American for ya:
    FUCK Nancy Pelosi and FUCK Steny Hoyer and FUCK any lame motherfucker who tells me I'm un-American for writing it.
    By the way, the CAPS were a visual illustration of "drowning out". Apparently the "F" word was not sufficient enough.

    Drowning out opposing views has freed slaves, given women the right to vote and control their bodies, and toppled more than a few foreign despots. Almost every inch of progress achieved for good or ill, depending upon point of view, began with "drowning out an opposing view".

    What I can only guess Ms. Pelosi and her sidekick meant was the "denial of opposing views". That would be a plausible description of un-American, but "drowning out opposing views" is the very essence of America. There is no America or democracy or really any structured society without it. And, ironically, "drowning out opposing views" pretty much defines what this fancy USA Today op ed faux pas is trying to accomplish.

    Here's another doozy from the goon squad: "These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views -- but of the facts themselves."
    Did the recession drain the entire proofing department at USA Today?

    Yes, people who oppose views are usually frightened by the facts behind them. This is why they oppose them. Also, the use of "facts" here is dicey. The rancor about Healthcare is merely speculation; no one, whether opposing or supporting the concept, has a goddamned clue of how it will play out. This is made painfully obvious by the continued lunacy coming from both sides, whether it's "Death Panels" or "Curtailing Insurance Company Greed". Finally, the use of "disruption" is downright insulting. Would Ms. Pelosi call those who opposed the Iraq War "disrupters"? I doubt it, since she counted herself one.

    One more key question for our House Speaker: What is the difference between Dick Cheney's two-dimensional bunker mentality against dissent and this crap?

    The most disturbing aspect of the Pelosi/Hoyer drivel is that it feeds into the long-running fears Americans have about their legislative branch, whether it is Republican senators making infantile anti-Healthcare arguments with cartoon placards of bunny rabbits or red-faced Democrats acting as if people screaming at public forums constitutes "mob mentality".
  To wit: "Tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted 'Just say no!' drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion."

    I argue that visual aids and chants are fine examples of "substantive discussion", but maybe you don't. Okay. But this does not make you un-American. Perhaps it suggests you need to get laid, sip a beer, read a little Blake, turn up the volume on Ray Charles and get to shaking yo ass, but to each is own.

    But hell, "Un-American" worked like gangbusters for Republicans during the months and years following 9/11, through all the goofy machinations and laughable screw-ups masked as patriotism, so why not? Just throw it out there, like the opposition currently throws out killing grandmothers, Nazis, tyranny, and rationed care to spin the tide. And this is all very American, and quite educational; unlike someone claiming that crazy innuendo and bombastic fear mongering are hidden plots to warp the electorate. Get over yourself; we have talk radio for that.

    Of course behind all this posturing is a Democratic Party on its heels with the decades-old Healthcare debate, as it has once again plunged into a quagmire of bureaucratic nonsense, followed predictably by harebrained panic-speak. You'd think by now professional civil servants would recognize the telltale signs. They might even recall similar tactics employed when the last president tried to privatize Social Security, another American institution the citizenry believes is doomed but gets nuts when you try and restructure, just like Healthcare or the College Football Bowl system.

    What is this, the fourth, fifth, twentieth, thousandth crack at this? You have to give them credit for what many would describe as the very definition of insanity -- attempting the same failed maneuver time and again and expecting victory. But even George W. would have been hard-pressed to write something as completely irrational as Pelosi, which should give Sarah Palin supporters hope.

    Speaking of idiocy, White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel recently told the NY Times, "Do not associate loud with effective", which is hilarious when considering the source. Emanuel would be delivering sub sandwiches around the Southside of Chicago without his brilliant use of the "loud as effective" template.

    I haven't boned up on my Machiavelli lately, but I feel pretty confident that it isn't too cool for populists to be mocking the populace. This is a fair tack for a Right Wing "The public doesn't know what's good for it" play, but the Democrats, who posit themselves as "Saving the people from themselves" would be better served with more coddling and less sarcasm.

    At the very least the party shouldn't unleash people with questionable debating skills and at best sub par literary abilities to front what the president of the United States has repeatedly called the most important piece of legislation of his young administration.

    Why doesn't the new guy just go the route of the last cabal and ignore everyone and do whatever the hell he wants. He has the votes. He has the "political capital". Enough with these people expecting everyone to love them. Get on with it, and then history will decide what works and what doesn't.
    Annoying. Defiant. Reactionary.
    Very American.
© James Campion August 14th 2009
realitycheck@jamescampion.com

Stupidly, Stupidly, Stupidly
James Campion
Life Is But A Dream
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,shall not be violated

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