The Guns of August: A Call to Arms for Progressives and Obama Activists
Posted on August 5th, 2009 by Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Director in Take Action!
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History buffs will recognize The Guns of August as Barbara Tuchman's classic history of World War I. The reference works now because August 2009 just opened with trench warfare on health care reform. Unfortunately, the right-wing mob is seeing some early superficial success. We need to enter the battlefield immediately to defend the President's top priority, providing a guarantee of good, affordable health care to all this year. This is a call to arms for the army of activists who powered President Obama to the White House.
We are already seeing the violent excesses of the right. They hung freshman Maryland Congressman Frank Kratovil in effigy, painted Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett as a devil with horns, and screamed insults at HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. This is an angry minority, bitter about an America that they don't recognize, led by a man that doesn't look like them.
These are the same crazies that applauded calls to violence last fall at Sarah Palin rallies and made a hero of Joe the Plumber. But remember, as the public began to understand what the far right-wingers really stood for, it didn't take long for a great majority of the electorate to write them off.
But since health care won't be decided at the popular ballot box, we can't just wait for the public to recognize the reality behind this nutty minority. There are two prizes in the battle at hand - the national press narrative and Congress' support. We have to win the press war by making it clear that shouts of "socialized medicine" and "government health care" are from a mob on the fringe of American politics. And we need to be sure that wavering Democrats in Congress see that there is strong popular support for health care reform.
Health Care for America Now is joining with progressive groups throughout the country to out-gun the tea-baggers in August. Members of Congress are spending their time at home trying to gauge public support for reform before returning to Washington after Labor Day. It will be a contest all month long, and we have to take it on with all the urgency that the historical task at hand demands.
We've launched a new page on our website to help you take action in August: www.healthcareforamericanow.org/fight. Here you'll find out how you can join the fight locally. We'll list town hall meetings and events by Congressman from both political parties so that we can show strong support for reform and keep control of meetings. We'll also tell you how you can directly challenge those members of Congress who are siding with the far right, often using the same extreme rhetoric of the tea-baggers. And we'll be organizing our own actions to show how Congressional opponents of reform are carrying water for the health insurance industry. The page includes pointers for how to organize your own action and how to prepare and respond to the right-wing mob.
As President Obama said on the night he was elected, "I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime."
Of all the challenges in American history, there is none greater than turning health care from a privilege to a right. We need everyone in America who believes that health care is a right to rise to the challenge that the President laid out before us on Election Day. Right now, this month, is the time to declare that this is our country and that an extreme right wing minority will not wreck our nation's path to health care justice.
Guns? Really??
Come on guys, we don't need to put Guns in our headlines. Try to make yourselves ATTRACTIVE to the nut-cases. Take a look at your president, answering all the questions calmly and correctly. That's what's needed here.
Not guns. - S.
HCAN, Families USA, AFSCME, SEIU, AARP and you are public enemy #1. Tea Party Patriots are winning support every where and every day. Once everyone in America sees that progressives want to take over the country your groups will need to find another disguise.
PS You may call us "teabaggers" but you guys suck!
I agree with Scott about not using "guns" in the call to action. However, we must NOT allow those who want to silence intelligent discussion succeed. I feel sad for "Against You" because unless you are a highly paid insurance executive, you will be hurt the most by those who want to stop health care reform. The for profit insurance companies you are fighting to protect will be the first to cancel your coverage if you contract any chronic condition that will cut into their profits. What kind of health care do you think the elderly would have in this country if it wasn't for the government run plan called Medicare? Look up Harold Potter if you want to see who really cares about your health and well-being. He is an industry insider who flew on corporate, private jets until he saw his neighbors having to attend health fairs where doctors, dentists, and nurses volunteered their services for free. He knew something had to be terribly wrong if his neighbors could not afford health insurance. How can you say WE suck, when we want everyone to have quality, affordable health care? Also, AARP is an organization that has done more to help senior citizens in this country than any other group I know of. If you consider them an enemy, you better be drinking from the "fountain of youth" because before you know it, you'll need them.
Finally, we can disagree and not hate each other. Hate mongering helps no one and is a poison to both the giver and the receiver. I believe in health care reform, and I also believe we should be able to live together in peace. May you find peace, may we all find peace, and may the coming weeks bring out the best in us as a nation, not the worst.
Agreed that hate mongering helps no one, and you want to have an intelligent discussion concerning health care… ok, let's have it.
1. The gov't will decide what kind of health care you get. They will decide if you are too old to receive what would be too expensive operations, or hip replacements, etc… because it is not cost effective. Not whether the method is available.
2. Read the bill, all of it. Do you really want the gov't to have your medical records? How about invasion of privacy?
3. Forcing employers to pay for health insurance for employees. You think that is a good idea? Ok, right now XYZ employer has 20 employees. The gov't forces him to pay $1000 per employee to have health insurance. But that isn't in his operating budget, so to make up the cost he has to fire one employee for their wages to pay for health insurance.
4. Who is going to pay for this? Obama said that he wouldn't raise taxes one dime on the middle class, but just last week, it wasn't ruled out when asked to his staff.
5. Illegal Aliens will be covered by the proposed health insurance… what part of "Illegal" is not understood?
Ok, that's a start. I am an independent voter, I vote for who I think will do the best for this country.
I'm down for having a debate, but you can't put forward things that are not true. Point to the pages in the bill that do any of these things, and I'll show you how you're wrong.
See here for much much more:
http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content/fight_the_smears
"Guns of August" is a good reference actually. Very prescient. As for 'Against You', all I can say is how sad your life must be - so full of hate, so boxed in by fear. If your brand of terrorism - and make no mistake, what you do and what you advocate is terrorism because you want to silence any and all voices who do not believe or talk or act like you - is indeed taking hold in this country, then the Taliban has definitely won - with your help. In the meantime, the rest of us, we progressives,will work continually and tirelessly to ensure that our fellow citizens will no longer be forced to die for wont of health insurance or a lack of access to quality healthcare.
I am baffled. Why are members of Congress not taking simple precautions of
1. Hire security -bouncers, off duty cops, whatever
2. Post rules - rules should include : No interrupting. No screaming. No cursing or profanity. No standing in aisles. No blocking exits. No blocking visibility with signs.
Come on folks. John McCain had rules to his town hall meetings. People with Tshirts he didn't like were not admitted. You know that the right wing would have rules like these from the get go. We have to get tougher on the crazies, or they take over the discourse, which means that they win.
3. Limit access to the hall, and have anyone who enters sign an agreement to the above rules, or they don't enter.
4. Eject those who don't comply.
What exactly is so hard about this? First amendment rights do not cover the right to disrupt and terrorize peaceful assemblies.
If you think we are the just a small minority then just ignore us. No need to get uppity. Go back to your ivory towers and congratulate each other on how smart you are. We will continue to work hard and eventually bring the country back to rewarding those who work and allowing them to make their own choices. We do not need you telling us how to live and what to do.
You guys are not reading the polls. The pendulum has swung away from the progressive side because the President misled us on what he planned to do to "Change" America. FYI I have been to more than one teaparty and I can tell you there were Democrats there. It is not just about Obama. It is about the transfer of wealth from the American taxpayer to wall street bankers, auto companies, and other wealthy people we don't know. It started in the Bush administration and has been continued without bounds by the Democrat majority. If this is your vision of change, then you are a threat. I thought the plan was to tax the rich, not reward them with a government dole at the expense of the poor. You guys had better wake up! This is your country also that is being given away to wealthy Wall Street Bankers. Wake up before it is too late and you are begining to appear very hypocritical in your defense of the wealthy.
Check your blogs. (I have.) You are getting more anti responses than positives. Go ahead and try to organize. Your crowds will have to be paid and I can tell you the grass roots opposition is angry and will not be trifled with or lied to. The congressmen and congresswomen have a right to be afraid. This is a good thing. It is time the congress feared the masses.
Who benefited from the Bush tax cuts? Who benefited from no-bid Iraq contracts? Who benefited from the convoluted Medicare drug plan? And who is benefiting from our current health care system? The wealthy.
Yes, the middle class has been screwed - by Wall Street, by greedy mortgage brokers, by the government. But where does our hope lie? In the same people who are still laughing all the way to the bank? In "free market capitalism" that allows anything and everything that will profit upper management? In Republican politicians who are sitting back smugly hoping Obama fails, no matter who gets hurt in the process? I don't think so.
The right-wing tea-partiers (many of whom are friends of mine) are being deceived and manipulated by big business. The ironic thing is, they are fighting against their own best interests without even realizing it. As Janet Landis said in her comment above, if they get their way, they will be at the mercy of an insurance company when they lose their job, lose their coverage, and then face an illness or injury. Good luck with that.
The Democrat health care reform plan has the potential to be the most monstrous economic mess this country has never seen before.
I say don't do this, let's think of another way to help out those in need with out creating a government monster.
"We are already seeing the violent excesses of the right. They hung freshman Maryland Congressman Frank Kratovil in effigy, painted Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett as a devil with horns, and screamed insults at HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "
Where-the-fuck is the violence? You used 3 non-violent means of protest and expression in your example. The only violence I'm seeing are SEIU thugs gang-beating American citizens exercising their freedom of speech. I will say this, Sally…if you want violence, you're gonna get it!
You want a call-to-arms, I'm ready to take up arms against you. You creeps are exactly why I am armed to the teeth.
And John helpfully proves the point.
Progressive activists who care about health care for all must respond strongly to right wing attacks - and our Senators and Representatives must insist on basic civility in Town Hall meetings.
However, references to guns can only increase the danger for everyone. Let's work for health care, not increase the need for trauma care.
I checked this blog out thinking I might find some intellectual banter going on…I was wrong…goodbye.
I saw you on the PBS News Hour on Thursday August 13 debating Dick Army. You missed X4 big points HE made. First he is saying that government cannot be as trustworthy as private business one need only look at the recent financial situation to see that this is not true- government is “WE THE PEOPLE” we must push back on this myth. Is he saying the military is crap? Second if government cannot be trusted HE spent 18 years in government so logically he cannot be trusted. Third as a former congressman he is entitled to the best healthcare available to anyone in the country so his slam on Medicare is disingenuous. Fourth, it is true that someone will waive their entitlement to Medicare, but people still have the choice to use other insurance and many purchase supplemental health insurance.