Average American Derangement Syndrome, Part 2

By Kristia Cavere Markarian

The contempt and condescension of the left toward regular citizens has never shown itself more fully than these past weeks during the healthcare reform debates. Any person, from any party, who disagrees with Obama on socialized medicine, has been vilified by liberal politicians and their allies in the media, thus providing continuous examples of Average American Derangement Syndrome. Their first mode of attack was to generally insult the healthcare protesters:

Barney Frank, responding to a lady at his town hall meeting with an opposing view from his: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?...It [the protests] is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called those who disagree with Obama "evil-mongers" and accused them of using "lies, innuendo and rumor" to end rational debate. Mr. Reid continued, , "These are nothing more than destructive efforts to interrupt a debate...They are doing this because they don't have any better ideas. They have no interest in letting the negotiators, even though few in number, negotiate. It's really simple: they're taking their cues from talk show hosts, Internet rumor-mongers ... and insurance rackets."

The second part of the elitist attack on average Americans was to accuse them of an "ism." Thus the name calling specifically accused those opposed to socialized healthcare as portraying racism.

MSNBC Correspondent Contessa Brewer declared, "People are talking...there are questions about whether this has racial overtone, I mean, here you have a man of color in the Presidency and white people showing up with guns."

John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, stated, "This meeting has been heavily infiltrated rather heavily by folks who wish to make trouble." He went on to proclaim, "The last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it. At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble."

NY Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote, "...the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that's behind the 'birther' movement, which denies Mr. Obama's citizenship."

The third wave of assault came when Congressional Democrats began declaring the healthcare protesters to be un-American.

Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer in their USA Today op-ed, "Un-American Attacks Can't Derail Health Care Debate," wrote, "It is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue...These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American."

After their disdain of average Americans caused more people to become sympathetic to and agree with the position of the protesters, the leftist elected officials declared that those who attended the town hall meetings didn't really matter.

Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania stated, "...although those people have a right to be heard, they're not really representative of America in my opinion. We have to be careful here not to let those town meetings dominate the scene and influence what we do on health policy."

Chuck Schumer, Democrat Senator from New York, said, "It is a small fringe group...and if we let a small group of people who want to monopolize the conversation and not listen to the facts win, you may as well hang it up."

Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, stated, "These town hall meetings have been orchestrated by the tea baggers and the birthers to just be a free-for-alls, make a lot of noise, go on YouTube and show discord."

Lastly, after calling average Americans names, accusing them of being un-American, and dismissing them, the left has declared that the town hall protesters are dangerous to our country.

Representative Baron Hill, a Democrat from Indiana, called the protesters who disagree with Obamacare "political terrorists." He further stated, "They have only one purpose in mind and that's to blow up the meetings that are being held and that serves no one. If you just want to blow up a meeting that's a political terrorist."

Brian Baird, Democrat Representative from Washington state, called the healthcare protesters "extremists" and a "lynch mob," and stated, "What we're seeing right now is close to Brown Shirt tactics."

President Obama himself, at a town hall meeting in McLean, Virginia, stated that those who disagreed with his healthcare reform should "get out of the way." He also said he didn't want his detractors "to do a lot of talking."

The left is willing to require us to be empathetic and restrained in our reaction to terrorists who are trying to kill us, terrorist sympathizers who advocate our sabotage and destruction, and those who commit destructive anti-war demonstrations. Yet, the Democrats show scorn toward average Americans who are rightfully and peacefully requesting their government to justify its actions.

We are now being oppressed and targeted by the same elected officials who have been encouraging civil dissent when it came to traditional American values such as protecting our lives and liberty. Democratic hypocrisy is unbelievable; their attacks on average Americans are harsher than on our enemies whose aim is our demise.

The derangement is not with Americans asking legitimate questions as to why our country is being fundamentally changed and why we are being forced to accept radical alterations to our nation. The deranged ones are those who have been pushing socialized healthcare and similar government take-over agendas and who believe average Americans are incapable of seeing through their attempted sleight of hand.

© Kristia Cavere Markarian