The right is clearly dominate in their ability to drive public debate. They are passionate, organized, action-oriented and on-message while moderates and liberals are slow, lazy, prone to debate facts and issues and generally willing to acquiesce to whatever the right wants to yell out.
Mind you, facts and what's in their own self interest usually has nothing to do with the right's approach. No, it's more about an extremely vocal minority spewing out pent up emotion over a vague set of values such as freedom, small government and family values....set off I suspect over displeasure in losing the 2008 elections so badly to Obama and Democrats.
But the do it really, really well.
And with that approach, they drive the national political agenda despite being in the minority.
And so...what's the talk in the media in the wake of Obama's healthcare speech? Is it about the merits of healthcare reform? Is it about why this nation is going bankrupt specifically because of the healthcare system we have now? Is it about how it was, in fact, the conservative-run government that led is into historically massive debt?
No, it's about a bunch of ticked off conservatives saying that we're heading for USSR-style communism, calling Obama a liar, hoisting signs of Obama looking like The Joker or Hitler and saying that he's going to lead us to ruin.
But don't take my word for it.
For fresh evidence of what I'm talking about, read about the march today in Washington, DC in the AP story here. Note the photo collection featuring some of the fine intellectual points being made by the marchers.
Also, you can get a perspective on what's going on from the article in today's Boston Globe by clicking here.
The good news is that something must be hitting a nerve with these people, and I for one say that if you're really pissing off the far right wing...you must be doing something correctly.
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