Town Hall Meetings – The Founders Would Be Proud

The White House and the Democrat congress had proposed a new government health care bill.  It was over one thousand pages long and would affect every American directly or indirectly.  However, during a week of media distractions congress attempted to push this government health care bill through.

Fortunately, people were paying attention.  There were some out there who wrote about the bill or spoke about it on their shows and podcasts. The interesting part was that the story was strangely flying under the radar or entirely absent from the establishment media outlets, newspapers, news shows and political commentary programs.

As word began to spread and people quickly began to read the bill, they discovered exactly what was in the bill.  Unlike their elected representatives and media pundits, “ordinary” Americans could talk about what was in the bill and even reference the pages where the material could be found.   Let’s be clear. This is a good thing.

Then an interesting thing happened.  America started to work the way it should. People began showing up to their elected representative’s meetings to voice their opinion.  Not only were people opposing the fundamental flaws of government health care, they were speaking their minds about specific parts of the proposed bill.

What was the reaction?  Members of Congress and Senate began to label the crowds of Americans as unruly mobs.  They began to negatively label the people the swore to represent. In a fashion that some would argue was elitist, they began telling the crowds why the government was better equipped to make health care decisions about their lives than they were. It simply didn’t fly.  The American people just don’t want the government involved in health care anymore than they are currently.

The media echoed the career politicians.  They attacked the crowds of people opposing the health care bill and labeled them unAmerican. This is a ridiculous idea.  When questions about the bill were asked, there was never an explanation or clarification. Politicians and media talking heads never explained why people’s concerns were unwarranted.  They never referenced the bill in any manner. Critics like Sarah Palin used the expression “death panel” to express their strong opposition to government involvement in health care. She used this term as an expression and as a way to bring into question panels or groups of bureaucrats making life or death decisions about Americans.   The media countered with personal attacks.  Despite these attacks, the fact remains that there is content in the bill that leave room for government officials to ration or deny crucial health care to those they deem unfit for a procedure. It is not as though there is no history of this happening under government healthcare systems.  What people seemed to forget about Sarah Palin’s comments is that it is her right to speak her mind and have whatever opinion she likes.

It wasn’t so long ago that Hillary Clinton was fervently reminding her supporters that questioning the government  was patriotic.  She argued that questioning the government was as American as it gets.  Although I don’t often agree with Secretary of State Clinton, she was right.

The founding fathers were the ones who paved the way in questioning government. If they hadn’t questioned the policies of their time, there may never have been an America. They knew that people questioning the government and voicing their opinions was crucial to our political system.  They would be proud to see the people taking a stand against big government.   I argue that our founders would be saddened to see that America is at a point where government involvement in healthcare is even a thought.   Decisions regarding individual’s lives and health are simply not the domain of government.

When the people come together to stand against actions that threaten their rights and the Constitution that outlines these rights, we should be proud. I hope it continues. While the people are at it, maybe they can begin to vote out every single politician that supported this bill in any way.

Tagged as: government health care, government healthcare, health care reform, healthcare reform, individual rights, Liberty, socialized healthcare, socialized medicne, town hall meetings, townhall meetings