Thursday, August 20, 2009

Barney Frank Prangs a Pawn

Today Barney Frank went off on a Town Hall Meeting goon-ette who was comparing the Demos to Nazis.

I can understand Frank taking offense at being a Jew being denounced as a Nazi. Hard to resist squishing the peabrained ranter, as he did.

But. Just to be Mr. Buzzkill...the lady's a pawn, albeit a noisy one. The real question is what hand moved this pawn--and many millions of other pawns who have acquired similar beliefs--and did Frank's response do anything about the hand guiding the pawns?

I suspect not.

Moreover, though the pawn's conclusions endanger society, her sense of endangerment is quite real.

The genius of the Republican Noise Machine, the most visible arm of the Angry Billionaire's Club, is to strip Americans of many of the protections and security they once had, then persuade people like Pawn-lady that the people trying to save them are actually the ones who put them in danger.

Meanwhile the Democrats, entangled in their own extracurricular obligations, fight the Noise Machine about as effectively as John Kerry did. Maybe Obama has a brilliant game plan he's executing, but so far he seems to be replicating Kerry's deer-in-headlights response--perhaps stunned, as Kerry was, by the sheer no-holds-barred antipatriotic viciousness of the attacks. I'd hoped for a better streetfighter.

1 comment:

Maggie Knowles said...

Hard to believe that Obama would be that naive, to be surprised that republicans would be so vicious, since he is a politician and he did run a two-year campaign in his run for president.

I'm really disappointed in Obama, especially where the banks are concerned. If we don't get a robust, Medicare-like public option for health care reform, he will probably lose my support. I will probably lose hope for our country.

Abraham Lincoln had a similar problem, he didn't think the south would secede, he was pretty naive at the beginning of his presidency. I think Obama is as sincere as Abraham Lincoln was, is as inexperienced, and shares similar values. Abraham Lincoln did alright by our country, maybe Obama will surprise me. I hope so.