A lesson in discourse from Thumper's mom

"If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all."

        --Thumper, from Disney's Bambi

I saw a re-release of the Disney classic "Bambi" in the theater when I was a kid.  And I'm sure I cried when Bambi returned to the thicket frantically calling out "Mother!  Mother!" not realizing the evil hunter's bullet had slain her.  Recently, my children saw "Bambi" on video and Thumper's line seems a propos for the health care debate gripping out nation's summer.  You may recall that Thumper's line was prompted by his mother scolding him for poking fun at Bambi.  It's a good lesson that everyone should learn, especially children.

Apparently some never learned it.

There is nothing wrong with healthy debate and dissent.  And while no one condones talking over or shouting down another speaker, sometimes there is no other way to get your point across.  Especially with politicians as dense and corrupt as we have today.  Well, since that comment doesn't strike a tone that would satisfy Thumper's mother, I've taken the first step in new civil discourse by scratching that comment.

Now, can we stop calling people Nazis? 

None of the people opposing Obama-care or appearing at the town hall meetings are Nazis.  Whole libraries have been written about the Third Reich and Nazi Germany and I'll bet none of them contains a tome describing either major party in today's American politics.

Even though Nazism is often associated with the "far right", this association is based mostly on with whom Hitler formed alliances and his strong anti-Communist beliefs.  Unlike the "far right" of Hitler's day, mainstream conservatives look upon racial hatred, collectivism, xenophobia, Anti-Semitism, and the deprivation of freedom or liberty with profound disdain.  In fact, American conservatives hold positions antithetical to these.  And comparing anyone in mainstream America (i.e. about 99.9% of the population) to a leader, regime and ideology that wears the blood of millions of innocent people is patently hyperbolic and ridiculous.

Second, we should also stop the thinly veiled comparisons between outspoken opponents of Obama-care and anti-civil rights racists of the 50s and 60s.  Mere disagreement with President Obama--even if strong--is not racist, and neither is aggressive opposition to his policies.  When we Henry-Louis-Gatesify every interaction among people of different races, we diminish the seriousness of those rare occasions where racism is present and leads to actual discrimination or harm.

Third, the personal attacks should stop.  After Sarah Palin criticized a provision of Obama-care that would have set up "death panels" (her words), Democratic hatchetman Paul Begala called her "half a whack job" possessing virtually no intelligence or real influence.  Palin can take care of herself and, indeed, she apparently had enough influence to mobilize the grass roots and force congressional hands to remove the objectionable provision.  If (hyperbole notwithstanding) Palin was so wrong, Mr. Begala, why remove the provision?  Moreover, left-wing bloggers have taken particular pleasure in ridiculing ordinary Americans exercising their God-given right to dissent, hit-and-run politics of a truly base variety that doesn't advance the ball. 

President Obama himself has shown a propensity to ignore Thumper's advice.  Obama started by telling those who "screwed up" health care to stop talking so he can clean up the mess.  Who exactly should be deprived their First Amendment rights, Mr. President?  Doctors?  Nurses?  Hospitals?  Insurers?  Pharmaceutical companies?  Medicare officials?  Unions?  Patients?

Maybe just the conservative ones.

Next Obama, in unscripted, unteleprompted fashion, insulted the workers of the United States Postal Service by claiming the USPS is the one mail delivery agency "that's always having problems" unlike private postal options UPS and FedEx.  Leave aside the fact that in his criticism the "government option" is the one always in trouble and the irony that he favors a single-payer system--or at least did a couple of years ago when no one was listening.  The National Association of Postal Supervisors has responded with a swift kick of its own.  The criticism was unnecessary and backfired badly on several levels.

You might say those who call Obama-care (or Obama himself) "socialist" fits the category too.  While it's true that Obama opponents often use this term perjoratively, the fact is that his policies have frequently tended toward greatly increased state control of large sectors of the economy.  "Socialism" can refer to many things but that's one of them.  In other words, unlike personal attacks and Nazi comparisons, calling Obama's policies socialist is truthful.

The bottom line is that I'll criticize whatever positions or policies with which I disagree but will do so without inaccurate or spurious name calling or demanding that anyone keep quiet.  I ask others to do the same.

That's the way Thumper's mom said it should be.