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8/11/2009
Burri: Remember how President Bush handled demonstrators?
Remember the Bush administration? Sure you do. Maybe wistfully. Maybe not. Remember the furious, sometimes offensive protests that followed President Bush wherever he went? Some of you, I think, don't. Some of you – especially if your names are Nancy or Barack – have forgotten how Bush handled those protests.
For example:
At a joint news conference with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono [in 2006], Bush shrugged off the demonstrations, saying it was a sign of a healthy democracy.
“I applaud a society where people are free to express their opinion,” Bush said of the protests that accompanied his visit to the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
…“It’s to Indonesia’s credit that it’s a society where people are able to protest and say what they think,” Bush said. And that wasn’t the only time. President Bush treated protest respectfully, even when the protesters painted Hitler mustaches on his picture. No matter how nasty; no matter how angry, Bush never attacked them back.
Then the 2008 campaign arrived. Barack Obama promised us change. He delivered.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs: "The Astro Turf nature of so-called grassroots lobbying ...this is manufactured anger."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care."
President Obama himself, who, during the 2008 campaign, said:
“I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.” And:
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” That same President Obama said of today's political opposition: “I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.”
The Left talks a good game about dissent, formerly known as the “highest form of patriotism.” They’re all about groups of Regular Americans getting together to Speak Truth to Power.
As long as the Power is made up of Republicans. As long as the Regular Americans are wearing hemp sandals, or the color pink, or maybe waving rainbow flags. As long as their protests signs put pictures of George Bush or Rush Limbaugh or Dick Cheney next to the swastikas.
And hey, if those protests were organized and recruited and bussed in by MoveOn.org, or Code Pink, or the AFL-CIO or SEIU, well, no biggie. It’s still an awesome grassroots example of the people’s discontent!
Or, at least, it was. Pre-2009.
As President Obama likes to say, let me be perfectly clear: I’m no fan of rowdy crowds disrupting an event to the point that the organizers can't do what they came to do. If a Congressman or some other group puts an event together, they should get to have their event. Disagree. Be mad. Wave signs. Ask tough questions. Boo and hiss and bellow your disgust, where appropriate, and then shut up. But let the event happen. Let the people talk.
If somebody pushes you, don't push back. Just make sure your video camera is running.
But Democrats have lost their love of loud, rowdy crowds disrupting whatever business might be going on around them, now that the “business going on around them” is their own attempt to re-form (not “reform”) health care. Now that it’s their ideas, and their priorities, suddenly the protesters don’t count anymore.
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
Yes, Mr. Bush handled those situations nicely. But, as I recall, Mr. Obama faced similar demonstrations, ignored them similarly, and was accused by the right of being apologetic at the least, and inviting terrorists at the more extreme.
As for the "get out of the way" comment? Couldn't agree more. It's our turn now, and no matter how much you pack the meetings, we'll still roll Ted Kennedy in on a gurney to block the filibuster.
jimspice (Tue Aug 11 04:20:46 2009)
Anyone else remember Hillary screaming that it is our "patriotic duty" to disagree with "this or any administration"?
Can dish it out but can't take it. Lame.
Steve Wells (Tue Aug 11 06:29:04 2009)
So then, jimspice: I guess "our turn now" includes all the astroturf hired off Craigslist, the paid ACORN activists and the SEIU thugs sent to shut up people who spontaneously show up to voice their opinions.
What a shame the left has turned America into a banana republic. Now it's "their turn." Time to vilify, prosecute and execute the deposed politicians.
No matter what party is in the majority, we all voted, most of us pay taxes, and the Constitution still applies.
Duke (Tue Aug 11 07:49:53 2009)
'No matter what party is in the majority, we all voted, most of us pay taxes, and the Constitution still applies.'
Well, almost Duke. We pay taxes IF we're not among the elitist class - where failure to do so is just considered an oversight punishable by a slap on the wrist (contrast that to the way someone making less than $40k is treated when they make a mistake).
The Constitution applies IF it is convenient. Case in point: It's OK for an artist to take a dump on the American Flag and they'll be protected by the First Amendment under freedom of expression ... but if you disagree with the current administration or congressional leadership's "vision" of what America should look like - don't you dare think of speaking up ... then you're un-American.
Hmmm.
Jeff (Tue Aug 11 08:13:23 2009)
Don't get me started Jeff.
I keep wondering why, when the 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution specifically prohibit the federal government from doing anything not spelled-out as their authority or responsibility, we have to endure this national argument over the feds providing health insurance, bailing out (and taking over) banks, financial institutions and car companies.
Isn't it unamerican to violate the Constitution?
I agree..., Hmmmm.
Duke (Tue Aug 11 09:08:23 2009)
You're failing to mention that Bush handpicked his town hall audiences so he would only get softball questions. Talk about limiting free speech.
Also, I don't recall examples of groups deliberately sabotaging Republican townhall meetings. This is about respect for the townhall process. You are blurring the issue.
Joe Glass (Tue Aug 11 09:39:11 2009)
So now it's considered "sabotage" to voice strong objections to your elected representatives at public meetings??!
I would expect it is, however, sabotage to send thugs in their SEIU tshirts to beat up on senior citizens at public meetings in order to limit their free speech. And when did we establish the official "townhall process?"
Let's see if The One doesn't filter his audience in New Hampshire when he holds court on his latest take on the govenment health care gambit. Maybe he'll plant a few good questions about another one of his cronies that was abused by a cop again.
Duke (Tue Aug 11 10:13:52 2009)
From the left themselves, here is their game plan for controlling dissent:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/08/hcan-playbook-for-thwarting-town-hall-protesters.php?page=4
This is a fight worth having. When given the "progressive" nature of government, if you let them control health care, next thing they are going to want to take over banks, insurance companies and auto manufacturers...NAH that could never happen in capitalist free market America right?
As to the hired thugs, didn't Hitler do stuff similar to that? I wonder...
As to GB II, I DID remember that he controlled an appearance in LaCrosse to the extent that even people with T-shirts with the wrong message were ushered out, much less permitting negative signs. And tickets to some events distributed thru the Republican party limited the possibility of participation of any but the faithful. But yes, otherwise, GB II was more tolerant that the current "liberal" (as the term has been distorted)Pres.
Frightening that the current resident of 1600 Pa Ave. has not once but at least twice threatened our first amendment rights. Once by asking folks to report dissidents, and once by these recent remarks. But on consideration, Obama voted for all the spending he could during his term in the Senate, voted for the bankster bailout pork last fall, wanted to spend even more, and as DEms were in a position to do something about our economy and did not, then he must be asking himself to sit down and shut up, as he is fully culpable. I would welcome that, though I would never demand it.
And his "fixes" are guaranteed to make our problems worse. NO WAY health care will cost less when it is free. We can not afford the government we have now, much less the one the Obamites want to create. We are bankrupt...
Ken Van Doren (Tue Aug 11 11:51:42 2009)
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