As far as I’m concerned, dissent takes a bit more than name calling. Especially when you’re wrong.
Indeed.
Dissent is disagreement. Wilson wasn’t expressing disagreement, he was making a false accusation, and doing so in a manner which violated the decorum of Congress in an extraordinary way.
So Wilson did not speak “truth to power,” and he did not, strictly speaking, “dissent.” He just made an ass of himself. What is happening to the Republican party? It’s just becoming a confederation of paranoid nutbags pandering to other paranoid nutbags.
Look at it this way: Obama is holding all the cards; the Republicans can stop nothing if Obama wants it badly enough. They simply don’t have the votes. In fact, when you think about it, all GOP representatives can do at this point is stand up and call Obama names.
Obama’s problem is the sinking support for his risky scheme to completely overhaul the nation’s health-care system. Americans don’t want it touched, thank you very much. And they are letting their elected officials know that their political futures are on the line if they go along with the failed community organizer’s idiotic ideas. The more Americans hear about Obama’s insane ideas, the less they like them. Add to that, voters are also taking notice that Obama seems to be completely surrounded by whack-job, fruit-cake radicals. Van Jones? Really? The thought that a complete nut like him would even be allowed on the White House tour is spooky enough, but Barack “It’s like the Special Olympics or something” Obama wanted to place him in a position of power? An unelected czar who answers to no one?
A lot of Americans have a problem with that.
Personally, I wouldn’t trust a failed community organizer like Barack to park my car at the hospital during my next visit…and I certainly don’t want him with his…ahem…record of achievement…(snort)…getting anywhere near a complete overhaul of the greatest health care system on the planet.
I’ve found this interview to be fascinating and entirely apropos. Anyone who cares about what Conservatism once was and can be, in a mature, reasonable way, should read this.
I am unlikely to ever again be a supporter of the Republican Party (certain not as the GOP is right now), but I have always said that both parties need to be balanced by the other side. Political hegemony is never a goods thing. However, right now the GOP isn’t providing balance, principled opposition, or anything like that. It’s full of asinine, self-righteous dickwads making asses of themselves as they work incredibly hard at undermining our democracy. Wilson’s outburst is a product of that, albeit fairly trivial compared to spreading lies about “death panels” and “socialism,” and encouraging people to doubt President Obama’s Constitutional right to be elected.
Has this ever happened before?
“Risky scheme…Special Olympics…community organizer.” Those are some spent shells if I ever saw them. You’re really out of ammo, aren’t you? It must really suck to see your entire ideology go defunct right before your eyes.
As for his “record of achievement,” let’s see…Columbia and Harvard Law, President of the Harvard Law Review, civil rights attorney, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, State Legislator, U.S. Senate and President of the United States…yeah, I’d be really embarrassed to have such a paltry resume. I’m sure yours is far more impressive.
Far as I can tell, the Republicans have realized that, since they’re the minority, they get to act like it. But since they have so little practice with it, they’re going waaaaaay over the top and making fools of themselves. Meanwhile, the Democrats haven’t realized they’re in the majority yet, so they’re still acting like they’re not in control. So we have the people who usually take the role of responsible adult acting like whiny, bitchy children and the people who usually take the role of rebellious teenager still acting like rebellious teenagers who have no idea how to care for whiny, bitchy children.
I call bullshit on this. You have no evidence to back this; what evidence there is is that people do not think that America has “greatest health care system on the planet,” and do want to see major components of it overhauled completely.
The fact that some people have bought the lies and fear-mongering about some of the current proposals in front of Congress is not an impressive way to support your claim.
But in any case, Obama during the 2008 campaign was quite clear that health care reform would be a major component of his agenda if elected to office; and elected he was, quite handily, with a solid majority of the popular vote and a near-landslide of the Electoral College. Bingo. Mandate for change.
Your assessment of Obama is biased, stupid, short-sighted, and not shared by many.
You know what must really aggravate the righty wingnuts – the fact that Obama doesn’t have a sex scandal. It must drive them nuts that he clearly has a genuine marriage and practices sincere family values. That’s the one thing they can’t ding him on, meanwhile Republican after Republican keeps getting caught with their pants down. He’s better than they are at their own most vociferous point of demagoguery.
I’m glad you think that calling people liars is a form of patriotic dissent, because it needs to be pointed out that what you are saying here is a lie.
On average, Americans are in fact much less satisfied with our health-care system than citizens of other industrialized nations are with theirs, and it’s not true that “Americans don’t want it touched”. In fact, an ABC/Washington Post poll found that 62% of Americans “support creating a government-funded entity to offer health insurance to those who don’t get it elsewhere”, which isn’t just a “touch” but a major change.
Yes, Americans are definitely worried about the possibility that reform could have negative consequences, which makes their support for reform very vulnerable to the lies spread by extremist Obama-haters such as yourself (“wouldn’t let him park your car”? :dubious: ). Which, of course, is the reason you’re spreading those lies in the first place.
Of course, you and the other Obama-haters do have the option of actually attempting a rational discussion of the advantages and dangers of health insurance reform, in order to enable the public to make better informed choices. But that would be too much like work, and might not get you the outcome you want, so you’ve decided to stick to lies and sneers on the principle that you’ll be able to muddy the waters enough for your purposes if you just keep flinging enough mud.
Right, Republicans have no leverage. That’s why the all-powerful Democratic party pushed through their mandatory socialistic health management system within the first 90 days of President-For-Life Obama’s reign.
See, Stephe, its stuff like that which is the reason why you guys never win any elections…
Even more frigging hilarious is the Act Blue page for Mr Miller–I looked at it right after the speech aired and the guy had about $7500 total raised from a couple of groups. As of this time, it’s pushing $70,000 in donations and check out some of the group names–classic! Rob Miller is the second most active page on Act Blue today.
Part of me would be disappointed if it were not true, but most of me grew up around The Guys and know that business like that is usually performed by soldiers.
You’re… satire, right?
Like… Stephen Colbert style?
Come on, who needs a sex scandal with the daily parade of incompetence that characterizes this administration? Obama’s popularity is in freefall and one heckling Republican won’t change that at all.
You might be interested in this GD thread, especially the links. Czars aren’t new, nor exclusive to Obama. And, in a sense, they don’t need to “answer” to anyone, since their actions reflect directly on the President, who IS answerable to EVERYONE. Unless I’m mistaken, if the czar does something bad, why not just get to him through his boss the President? It’s not like a czar can start a nuclear war without anyone’s oversight or approval.
Two words, Diogenes: affirmative action.
If it’s any consolation for the whoosh you’re hearing right now I was referring to a scene in Idiocracy where the president (who is also black) is explaining his new initiatives to the “House of Representin’” and gets heckled by the representative from South Carolina. Mr. Wilson was obviously a fan of this movie.