BY-NC-SA I just read this Scoop 44 opinion piece about the fear tactics present at health care town halls going on around the country. I agree with the piece. The public is making it hard for politicians to get their job done. When they go to these town hall meetings and make outlandish comments, they take away from what’s really important. They’re pumping fear into the public and all the fear is an attempt to make Obama look bad. All he is trying to do is get affordable health care for everyone.
These town halls have become somewhat of an open forum for people who don’t like Obama to insult him. Take a look at this video of Rep. Barney Frank at a town hall meeting in Dartmouth, Mass.
After watching the video, I became very confused. Isn’t a town hall meeting meant to be a place where the public can come give there opinion on health care reform? Isn’t it a place for people to discuss important issues? That didn’t seem like what was happing in the video. The lady holding up the Obama photo with the Hitler-like mustache did nothing but slander Obama’s character. The photo of Obama defaced to look like Hitler was nothing more than a personal attack against him and an attempt to belittle him. It had nothing to with health care at all!
It makes me wonder what we are really debating about. There seems to be something else underlying the whole health care debate. And I think that underlying factor is the president himself. Every time I read something about health care reform, it’s less and less about health care and more about something negative about Obama. In other words, it’s about politics. When the political opponents of Obama (and their supporters) get over the fact that he is the president, then I think progress will be made in the battle for health care.
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