Republican hecklers and the town hall sociopaths

by: catchlightning

Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 17:32:04 PM EDT

I watched President Obama's stirring address to a joint session of Congress on the urgent need to deliver on the American people's long-standing demand for real health care reform.  The full video is here.  At the beginning I was excited, hopeful and impressed.  At the end I was moved to tears, knowing just how long and hard the battle has been for the moral and economic necessity of health care reform -- and how close we may be now.

But in between, as the President forcefully knocked down the most bogus claims of right-wing reform opponents, hearing a group of Congressional Republicans booing and heckling the President, followed by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouting "You lie" -- video of that segment is here --  it was all too clear that for a certain segment of Republicans, the extremes of their ideology have led them to emulate the sociopaths who tried to disrupt Democratic town hall health care forums this summer.

But it was the sociopathic behavior of a significant number of reform opponents in the crowd that was shocking.

This angry, loud and ignorant gang, numbering perhaps 250 gathered in groups throughout the auditorium, many armed with right-wing website instructions on how to disrupt these meetings, put on a display of sociopathic behavior that many in attendance found hard to believe.

Early on they booed, heckled and tried to shout down an Hispanic Bishop who told a personal story in Spanish, translated by the fluently bi-lingual Rep. Himes.  Amazing.

They booed and heckled doctors and nurses who told their stories of often not being able to provide adequate health care due to interference from private insurance companies, or due to excessive costs or patients lacking finances or insurance.

They booed and heckled a retired former health insurance executive who told of his long-standing frustration with not being able to offer quality insurance policies to people at affordable prices.

And they booed, heckled and tried to seize the microphone away from a 61-year old woman battling cancer.

They booed and heckled anyone who didn't share their fear, their ignorance and their prejudice.

Now Congressional Republicans, seeing the edifice of their lies about health care reform crumble, in heckling the President seek to emulate the town hall sociopaths they themselves spawned.  Sociopaths -- the face and the base of the Republican party.