Some Country for Old Men

In the America we inhabit today, the LaRouche disciples and the modern-day conservatives work in tandem to sabotage town halls. They accuse Barack Obama of wanting to euthanize grandma, say he’s acting like a Nazi, and claim — based on something one of his health advisers wrote a decade ago — that he wants to ration healthcare based on people’s earning potential.

It’d be one thing if these attacks came from the retard fringe (the Code Pinks and Christian Coalitions of the world), but they come from Republican Party leaders.

Check out what Michael Steele, the chairman of the party, said on Wednesday:

Asked if he thinks there is a “death panel” provision in the bill – a suggestion that has been proven untrue and that the White House has spent a week trying to knock down – Steele said he does not know.

“It may or may not be. I don’t know. We don’t know what the bill is,” Steele said.

Seriously now, is that just shamefully intellectually dishonest, an outright lie, or straight cold retarded? Barack Obama didn’t run for office to kill people. No elected official in his right mind would vote for anything that did that (unless it’s to kill Terri Schiavo). These people won’t even say the words “tax” or “increase” for fear that someone will chop it into an ad and run it against them, and the accusation is that they’re willing to write a law that kills people? Where the hell are we!?

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is spreading the same misinformation on Facebook — because she’s 16 — people are bringing guns to town hall meetings (just CUZ), and Charles Grassley (supposedly one of the Republicans working with the White House on reform) is only fanning the “death panel” nonsense. So what ever are we to do? We’re at a place in time where this counts as reasoned debate:

We’re at a place in time where Glenn Beck — who recently called the president a racist, and is, let’s face it, probably insane — has the highest-rated show in cable news.

Well here’s what you do if you’re Barack Obama: you look in the mirror, check your math one last time (yep, you won a landslide election in which you pledged healthcare reform), and say to yourself, “Elections have consequences.”

In fact, just go ahead and make that your mantra.

Your party swept its way to a 60-seat majority in the Senate, picked up seats in the House (even with fucking Nancy Pelosi in charge), and yet there you are hop-scotching from state-to-state trying to work with people who are calling you a Nazi AND a Socialist.

Sure, your approval rating is at an all-time low, but it’s still over 50 percent. Did you catch that? You’re an illegitimate president (born in Kenya!), a Socialist, a Nazi and your entire reason for reforming healthcare is a geriatric bloodlust. And more than half of the population is still cool with you!

So go it alone, already! Take the reins of this wild ride, and shut out the people who aren’t working for real change. Shut out the people who insist on calling counseling from doctors “death panels.” Shut out the people who’ve said publicly that this is your Waterloo and that they want you to fail.

Is it risky? Yeah, sure; whatever reform you come up with is yours — you own it. But hell, you were hired to do a job. You were given massive majorities in both houses of Congress to push through your agenda.

So sink or swim on it. Either way, man up.