Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer -- Joe Wilson-Poster "Child" for New Republicans
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:11:13 EDT
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Wilson Is  the Poster “Child” for the New Republican  Party 
When Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelled out that President Obama was  
a “liar” in the middle of Obama’s nationally televised address to a joint  
session of Congress, he became the poster child for the new Republican 
Party.  
I definitely mean poster “child.”  Since President Obama took office, the 
language of the Republican Party  has become more childish and irresponsible 
by the day.  
President Obama’s powerful speech to the nation last night could not have  
contrasted more sharply.  He was the  adult in the room, calling on Congress 
to take responsibility for our future –  for stepping up to solve the 
health care crisis that worsens every day, for  making the changes necessary to 
allow America to live up to its own democratic  values – to acknowledge that 
no one should be denied the health care he needs  because he can’t afford 
it. 
By contrast, the Republicans have careened into schoolyard name-calling;  
Obama the Nazi,  Obama the “Joker” from Batman.  
They have begun to act like a gang of  juvenile delinquents, doing 
everything they can to frighten senior citizens –  attempting to convince them that 
health care reform would jeopardize their  Medicare and that the Government 
would set up “death panels” with the power to  pull the plug on Grandma, 
when both were patently untrue.  
There has been a brazen, bullying quality to their rhetoric – shouting  
down and intimidating opponents – a willingness to break the rules and say  
anything that serves their purposes with a complete disregard for consistency 
or  intellectual honesty.  Take their  “defense” of Medicare.  Remember  
that the Republicans opposed Medicare from its inception.  They said that 
Medicare would lead to  “socialism” the same way they claim that health 
insurance reform and a public  option will lead to “socialism” today. As recently 
as yesterday some Republicans  proposed eliminating Medicare and replacing it 
with a privatized “voucher”  system.  Yet they have the gall to  pretend 
to defend it against the Democrats who created it.  
And then there has been the irresponsibility of encouraging – and  
legitimating – gun-toting, hate-filled rhetoric by the fringiest of the right  wing. 
The Republican leadership has failed to censure people like the pastor in  
Arizona who  says he prays the President will die.  And it has encouraged 
delusional conspiracy theorists who believe –  contrary to all evidence – 
that Obama was not born in the United  States. 
As children grow up, one of the measures of increasing maturity is their  
willingness to begin focusing on the long term – on saving for the future – 
on  getting a good education – on the long-term welfare of their family. 
Instead of  throwing a tantrum because they want an ice cream cone now, they 
start savings  their nickels and dimes for the bicycle they want to save up to 
buy in the  future.  
But you won’t find the Republicans dealing with the affects of global  
warming on the next generation, or reforming the health care system so it won’t  
devour our economy in the future, or regulating investment markets to 
prevent  reckless investors from wrecking the economy in the years ahead.  No, 
instead of the needs of the next  generation, the Republicans want to squander 
our treasure on short-term tax cuts  for millionaires, and short-term 
profits for large corporations.   
Republicans used to have a reputation of staid “conservatism” like they  
were your stingy old rock-ribbed grandfather.  Today’s Republican leaders 
behave like a  bunch of teenagers who got their inheritance too early and can’t 
find enough  ways to indulge their short-term desire for “more.” They no 
longer reflect the  values of middle class families.  They reflect the values 
of reckless, “go go” Wall Street speculators who  think anyone who isn’t 
rich like them is a “chump” and that the purpose of our  society is to let 
them indulge their own self-centered, jet-set fantasies.  
Most childish has been their practical refusal to admit that they lost  the 
election and that Barack Obama is actually the President of the  United  
States.  Their recent attack on the President’s speech to school children that 
 aimed to inspire them to work hard and stay in school may be the clearest  
example.  Whether the Right likes it  or not, Barack Obama is the leader of 
our nation.  Questioning the appropriateness of his  addressing the nation’
s children with an uplifting message is the political  equivalent of a child 
closing his eyes, holding his ears and humming so he  doesn’t have to 
acknowledge that it’s time to go to bed.  Sorry, Barack Obama won the election,  
temper tantrums won’t change it.  
Last night Joe Wilson etched his political legacy into the wall of  
American history.  He will forever  be the poster “child” that symbolizes the new 
Republican  Party. 
Robert Creamer is a long-time political  organizer and strategist, and 
author of the recent book:  Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can  Win, 
available on _Amazon.com._ 
(http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1
?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213241439&sr=8-1)  

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