MEET THE MEMBERS OF THE MOB…. The Wall Street Journal had an interesting item today on President Obama’s town-hall event in New Hampshire. It noted, among other things, the gathering of protestors outside the event that “verged on a street brawl,” with “opposing forces lined up like screaming armies on either side of the street.”
One of the protestors, in particular, brought a unique perspective.
Diane Campbell of Kingston, N.H., held a sign with Mr. Obama’s face superimposed on a Nazi storm trooper, a sign, she said, that was made by her chronically ill mother.
Her mother’s hereditary autoimmune disease is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare. Her sister, Louise, was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
“Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism — that’s what’s going to happen.”
Now, my goal is not to pick on Diane Campbell, whom I do not know. She’s quite clearly confused, though, and has come to believe some ridiculous lies. Campbell has apparently been so enraged by the right-wing nonsense she’s been told, she feels entirely comfortable going out in public with signs comparing the president to a Nazi, and telling a reporter, on the record, that health care reform is comparable to Hitler’s Holocaust.
But let’s not overlook the irony of Diane Campbell’s situation. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care has kept her mother alive. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care provides treatment and care to her sister. Based on the descriptions, it’s safe to assume the costs associated with treatments for Campbell’s mother and sister are enormous, but taxpayers and a socialized health care system pick up the tab. What’s wrong with that? Not a thing.
Except, of course, that Diane Campbell is now trying to convince people that health care reform is both radical and dangerous.
I’m reminded once again of something Josh Marshall said the other day, about a different right-wing protestor: “[L]et’s all collectively throw a little cold water on our faces and just realize that this is some really crazy stuff. The health care debate is now being driven by a perverse nonsense feedback loop in which the Palin/Limbaugh crowd says all sorts of completely insane lies, gets a lot of … how shall we put it, impressionable people totally jacked up over a bunch of complete nonsense.”
