Disruptive Arguments:
Congressional representatives holding town hall meetings have begun to employ a good tactic in response to disruptive audience members who rant against President Obama's health care reform plan as "socialized medicine." Supporters of the president's plan ask the disruptors if they have Medicare and invariably a large number of people raise their hands. The hands quickly drop when the attendees are asked how many would be willing to give up their Medicare. The simple fact that Medicare is socialized medicine is lost on these participants, as it is on the Republican members of Congress who know that it would be political suicide for them to declare themselves against the popular medical care program for the elderly.
It is clear that such blatant hypocrisy doesn't register with the disruptors; they are either hired political functionaries, rabid ideologues or are simply tragically uneducated. In spite of this, the noise makers seem to be having an influence on public opinion, especially among independents who are key to President Obama's ongoing political success. The White House might do well to remind the rest of the country that many of the same Republican politicians bent on destroying that part of President Obama's plan that calls for a government-run "public option" supported former president George W. Bush in his failed attempts to privatize Social Security. If Bush had succeeded, it would have left the already shaky finances of the Social Security system dangerously exposed on the brink of an imminent Wall Street collapse.
Congressional representatives holding town hall meetings have begun to employ a good tactic in response to disruptive audience members who rant against President Obama's health care reform plan as "socialized medicine." Supporters of the president's plan ask the disruptors if they have Medicare and invariably a large number of people raise their hands. The hands quickly drop when the attendees are asked how many would be willing to give up their Medicare. The simple fact that Medicare is socialized medicine is lost on these participants, as it is on the Republican members of Congress who know that it would be political suicide for them to declare themselves against the popular medical care program for the elderly.
It is clear that such blatant hypocrisy doesn't register with the disruptors; they are either hired political functionaries, rabid ideologues or are simply tragically uneducated. In spite of this, the noise makers seem to be having an influence on public opinion, especially among independents who are key to President Obama's ongoing political success. The White House might do well to remind the rest of the country that many of the same Republican politicians bent on destroying that part of President Obama's plan that calls for a government-run "public option" supported former president George W. Bush in his failed attempts to privatize Social Security. If Bush had succeeded, it would have left the already shaky finances of the Social Security system dangerously exposed on the brink of an imminent Wall Street collapse.
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