Maddow calls out GOP operatives behind healthcare mobs
Published: August 6, 2009
Updated 6 months ago
On Wednesday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow named names and called out Republican operatives and organizations that are “generating exploitative, manufactured, strategically deployed outrage” to benefit their corporate clientele.
These political consultants and big-money backers are selling “crazy, disprovable, but nevertheless endlessly stoked conspiracy theories that health care reform is communism, that it’s a secret plot to kill your grandpa, that it’s a government takeover, it’s something called Obama-care. It’s going to mandate abortions. It’s going to mandate sex change operations.”
She added: “I would make up something that could be the next crazy thing, but everything I could think of that is that crazy has already been actually used by these people.”
(Health reform, Maddow went on to say, is of course not a plot to kill old people.The GOP has claimed it is, pointing to a measure that would cover the cost of making a living will — even though that measure was proposed by a Republican.)
The centerpiece of Maddow’s shot at the so-called healthcare “mobs” was an examination of a Web site promoting protests during the congressional recess through August.
The site — recessrally.com — features a list of sponsoring groups that include familiar names in conservative spheres, such as Michelle Malkin and the Red State blog. But it also includes a number of vaguely-named organizations like “Freedom Works,” “American Majority” and “The Sam Adams Society.”
At time of this writing, recessrally.com and the site that appears to host some of its digital assets — americanlibertytour.com — were offline. In Google’s cache of both sites (1, 2), neither provides image assets and it was not immediately apparent as to why. Recess Rally’s Facebook page illustrates their ties to the tax day tea parties and advertises anti-health protests outside every congressman’s office on August 22.
And just who are behind these groups?
“The executive director of American Majority’s Minnesota office — ko’inky dink — regional field director for Bush-Cheney ‘04,” began Maddow. “Executive director of their Kansas office would be a former Republican state legislator; executive director of their Oklahoma office, a former Washington, D.C. conservative lobbyist — you know, just your average middle-class Americans.”
Another ‘Recess Rally’ sponsor is The Sam Adams Society, run by “the former executive director of the Illinois State Republican Party,” said Maddow. “Sam Adams Alliance is also led by a former Dow Chemicals engineer who’s also president of the nation’s largest conservative state-level policy think tank…”
Finally, and what Maddow called “the most illustrative of all,” is Americans for Prosperity, run by Art Pope.
“Art Pope. Art Pope,” she said. “Why does that name sound familiar? Oh, right! That’s the headquarters of the North Carolina Republican Party. That building is named after Art Pope because Art Pope is a multi-millionaire far-right activist who’s given the Republican Party in North Carolina so much money over the years that they could think of no grander gesture than to name their headquarters building after him.”
After all, they’re just “average, middle-class Americans” much like yourself, Maddow concluded with a smirk.
This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Aug. 5, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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You go, Rachel. I say, use this Recess Rally website to counter-act the Right-Wing Fascists who show up at these rallies to mug the speakers. We need to go to these rallies to shout down the Republican spin machine.
Only in America can the dumbest among us, mostly, if not all, from the lower and middle classes, protest on behalf of the wealthy, to protest against their own best interests, while protesting to ensure the wealthy stay wealthy.
Once again, the Lords have their serfs do their dirty work. Sadly, they’re entirely too stupid to realize they are being used.
Nice try, comment #1 astroturfer!
Let me be clear: the rightwing media (FOX “news” in particular), astroturf “grassroots” organizations, and the Republican Party are TRYING TO INCITE VIOLENCE, and the exact reason for it is that they are not the majority anymore. And the mainstream media is complicit in covering this minority of people to make it appear that they are a majority of American people!
comment #1 astroturf said:
“We’ve been quiet too long,” said a woman named Joan.
Yeah, they were quiet for 8 years during the Bush administration. FURTHER proving it’s astroturfing!
Furthermore, anyone who takes ABC’s word for anything - the major networks are actually complicit in it by covering the astroturfers and not reporting that they are astroturfers.
The man may have attended Mardela High School but his message did not originate there. Fear is not typically taught in high school but superstition is most certainly encouraged. Ignorance, fear and mass hysteria are the hallmarks of the Republican party; they won this issue last time maybe they’ll win again. I prefer the Soylent Green option myself; bon apetite.
great message now how can small people like me help to get it out.
Spot on veronicaf, spot on. I couldn’t agree with you more. These people are individuals that in a nutshell are ignorant and stupid to what they are being asked to do and to what it’s being fought for. I seen some of these people, and many of them look like the low “IQ” types that have nothing better to do than to protests and push either their religion or their black helicpoter fantasies. One congressman actually had them raise their hand if they had medicare, almost all of them did (because many of them where retired and/or low income). The gist of it is that medicare/medicade is government run healthcare, and they can’t figure it out. Deep down they are running on fear, fear change. Fear of a black man in office, fear of a world that they see changing that doesn’t look like the one that they grew up in, fear of everything. Why do people or the Serfs vote against their best interest? It’s because they want to feel like they are part of the “in crowd” or the elite. That sounds crazy but it’s not that far off. It’s almost like highschool or other group dynamics that go on. They see the rich and powerful fighting against it and some think that if they fight for them they will be rewarded for being a footsoldier for them.
All they will get is a pat on the head and an increase in poor healthcare and services. It’s real easy to get people to do things against their best interest, just act as if they are PART OF THE TEAM. The problem is that they aren’t.
ABC, “The Path to 9/11 Network,” has little credibility to debunk anything. Of the major networks, they have a record second only to Fox News when it comes to being reliable water carriers for the GOP and the corporate right.
DNC & RNC have BOTH sold out the country in order to enrich themselves.
Independents agree on more than we disagree.
Beware the divide and conquer.
These are times of grand, monolithic deceits. If you don’t question what’s in front of your eyes and ears at every moment you’ll be swept up in their lies. Like Bill Maher said,”Americans will do anything to each other for money.” And corporate America will help all along the way.
Please keep in mind, so long as the criminal insurance companies are involved in anyone’s healthcare plan, ITS A BAD PLAN, no matter who sponsors it. People need to stop watching tv news that stirs up partisian bull crap and omissions of truth. Does Maddow focus on the single payer healthcare? Of course not, none of them do!
Unless the insurance companies get out of the picture, we will all continue to have worthless healthcare at horrific cost………….insurance companies are exactly like the mafia going around getting collections for protection. You nor your doctor need a middleman between you skiming off the payment first, causing the cost to rise and rise, and telling your doctor what medical proceedures you can and cant have. GET RID OF INSURANCE COMPANIES IN YOUR HEALTH CARE!
Single payer
Premium free
Medicare for all
Big Pharma on diet
Zero insurance profit
No deductible & no co-pay
Off the table - Just like Impeachment was?!
Go Rachel, now lets get the mob at C Street.
For what my employer pays out every month he could set that money aside and pay the doctors directly. My employer pays out 26000 every month to cover our health insurance. I’ve been with this company 10 years so that’s about 48,000. My one operation in 10 yearscost $9,000 including all the tests. Blue Cross and Blue Shield is just robbing everyone, non profit organization my ass.
Glenn Beck just keeps getting crazier. In the middle of a debate on health care, he actually say that the government mandates that schools teach girls that they can have as many babies as they want and to not listen to their parents.
I swear. Here is the clip.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2427
Exposed-
the propaganda that is Raw Story:
Why not also “expose”-
-that General Electric funded Obamacare—–> $200 Billion
-the Millions in lobbying to Obamacare legislators,
-The $18 Billion GM Bailout
- the $140 Billion in FDIC Bailouts,
- the connection between General Electric and Nazi Germany,
- the fact that GE will save $Billions with the anti-climate bill
- her relationship with Cecil Rhodes and the “White Man’s Burden”
?
Do Ya’ll just not know, or do you just not report the truth?
‘Right wing, republican idiot’s’…Wow you people come off as really highly educated. You haven’t figured out that there’s a mob of uneducated on the left side too, and it’s you. The right wing media pushes fear of terrorists and the right falls in line. The left wing media pushes fear of corporate power and the left falls in line.
Health care is a good not a right. In order to provide universal health care others must be forced (indirectly through the barrel of the gun) to give the fruits of their labor to another.
It occurs to educated people that this system will have to be paid for. That raising taxes on small businesses encourage some to leave the country, and others to take more leisure time. This exact thing happened in Great Britain.
There also will be a mass exodus of the best doctors to other countries. The doctor patient relationship is slowly being completely destroyed.
I can go on.
Here is a storyline for a Denzel Washington movie: Black cop shoots an out of state “white” constituent being paid by “health care lobbyists” to cause a riot and assault at a town meeting…………….
Eisenhower must be cringing in his grave, grieving over what his once proud Party has become. Truely sad. Like some maddened scorpion, stinging itself over and over in enraged despair….
i will say the same thing
about the healthcare “debate,”
as i did about the iraq war
(ie. reasonable people speaking against republicans),
i don’t know which is worse,
the fact that “healthcare” in america is so evil,
or that we have to argue with people to tell them
why that’s so.
let us ultimately acknowledge this:
republicans do not want the truth,
they want the government to act on their behalf
to create more wealth and power for them.
their only desire is a ruling class.
any poor person, or even middle-class,
acting for republicans
is the worst kind of retarded.
these people (republicans) are blackhearts,
and have no enjoyment of their ill-gotten gains,
the only joy they have is in the suffering of others,
the slave class.
rise up.
republicans should be stricken from mankind’s role list.
there is not an instant when they are not proven evil.
all of it is greed. greed. and gaming a wayward system.
“democracy” has become capitalism,
and capitalism has proved the enemy of mankind
and the planet earth.
god rest ye merry gentlemen.
in other words: go to hell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbUP66blTyQ&feature=channel_page
These guys are no republicans
Having studied rhetoric, the conservatives have chosen deftly: create a lot of loud controversy. This type of rhetoric scares everyone away from engaging in the actual details. This is exactly what some studied engineers of public opinion want: Big pharma in particular knows they cannot win if there is serious engagement with issues.
Solution: schedule many forums that appear on line and on C-SPAN that include ONLY people who are willing to engage in actual details.
This has a Rove signature as well — have Rush Limbaugh charge that Obama’s logo is like a swastika. Rove et al are imitating the brown shirts of Hitler’s time — creating fear of communism among Germans through physical intimidation and threats of violence, overwhelming opponents and then charging that the Democrats are Nazis. This is a self-congratulatory flourish used many times by Rove et al.
The saddest thing about this is that the very people mobilized to make these attacks and to join mobs are the people for whom a rational health care system would provide enormous benefits. The so-called conservatives are trafficking in fear. Really we have nothing to fear with improved health care, other than fear itself.