by Richard C. Cook
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
richardccook.com
August 24, 2009
Is anyone more than a little curious about where the so-called “populist revolt” against the Obama administration’s health care proposals is coming from and who is paying for it? You know, the revolt where people scream and disrupt town hall meetings, brandish guns outside in the street, accuse the government of planning mass euthanasia, and label a public option that would help some of the 47 million without health insurance get treatment as “socialist”?
My question is where were these brave patriots hiding when the Bush administration launched massive undeclared wars against Iraq and Afghanistan? Where were they when the military/CIA torture and rendition scandals erupted? Where were they when the Bush and later the Obama administrations gave away several trillion dollars in government bailouts, guarantees, and commitments to the financiers who engineered the biggest heist of the people’s money in history?
The health care revolt stinks of hypocrisy, manipulation, and behind-the-scenes collusion between right-wing political groups and their financial backers. I haven’t yet figured out the paper trail, but I bet the financial sources are the same as, or very close to, the financial oligarchs who just finished ripping off our republic on such an unprecedented scale.
I think that many, if not most, of these protesters are cowards who only step forth when someone big, important, and powerful is signaling it’s okay and paying for it.
In fact I think the health care revolt is a staged distraction to divert attention away from the fact that the recession isn’t really ending, that jobs continue to disappear even as the stock market firms up, that worker purchasing power continues to drop, and that the plight of the poor, elderly, disenfranchised, and out of work gets worse every day.
Wanna bet?
© 2009 by Richard C. Cook.
Richard C. Cook is author of We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform. His website is at http://www.richardccook.com. He will be speaking at the annual conference of the American Monetary Institute in Chicago September 24-27, 2009. Register for the conference at http://www.monetary.org/2009conference.html.
from the archives:
Between the Rhetoric and the Reality by Ralph Nader
This Isn’t Reform, It’s Robbery by Chris Hedges
Another World Is Possible: A People’s Movement is Needed by Ed Ciaccio
Defining socialism and single-payer health care By Jerry Mazza
Dandelion Salad 
evidently richard cook does not believe in DISSENT unless of course it agrees with him . i would recommend a book to you all by nat hentoff ”freedom of speech for me but not for thee: how the left and right censure each other”.
now i invite mr. cook to a debate about the right to say anything anywhere anytime . the right to disrupt . the right to yell fire in a crowded theater. if he is against these things, is he not against the first amendment ?
cook and i agree on single payer . so , that point is not the debate. the debate revolves around what comes off from his writings as an elitist attitude to LOUD DISSENT . that attitude is dangerous because he might support putting it into law in the form of hate speech laws , and so called fairness doctrines. i don’t really know . but articles like these encourage passivity with the government , not confrontation .
You Ask:
My question is where were these brave patriots hiding when the Bush administration launched massive undeclared wars against Iraq and Afghanistan? Where were they when the military/CIA torture and rendition scandals erupted? Where were they when the Bush and later the Obama administrations gave away several trillion dollars in government bailouts, guarantees, and commitments to the financiers who engineered the biggest heist of the people’s money in history?
My Question
Where are those brave liberals who protested the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? Last month marked the bloodiest month in Afghanistan. Who is protesting Obama’s pursuit of that war?
And Oh by the way CIndy Sheehan is campled out at Martha’s VIneyard, I haven;t heard a word from the media on that….. Have you?
Asking another question isn’t answering the first question(s).
Many of us are speaking out against the war in Afghanistan. http://en.wordpress.com/tag/afghanistan-on-dandelion-salad/
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
Watch:
http://vodpod.com/watch/2111439-senator-feingold-calls-for-timetable-for-u-s-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan?pod=dandelionsalad
Sign the petition: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/exit-afghanistan
The mainstream media doesn’t cover a lot of issues, or when they do they leave important points out. What else is new?
See:
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/cindy-sheehan-marthas-vineyard-press-conference/
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richard cook — i am a socialist who lives in the midwest , and i can tell you that this really is a grassroots movement . it is true about the double standard on the right ,. but the same can be said about the double standard on the left for not speaking out against Obama’s phony health care proposals , his 98 billion bucks toward the military monster that keeps his war going . where is code pink now ?
read my article on this blog called ”rage from within about the american empire long overdue”.
Right on.
Thanks for writing. Never got so much hate mail as I have with this one so I appreciate a good word.
The last paragraph says it all–the health care diversion! The economy is in the toilet, but hasn’t been flushed yet, but there’s no question that it will be.
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