The Squeaky Wheel and the “L” word

Idiom: “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” - means that if you bitch loud enough, you'll eventually get your way.

From “astro turf” demonstrations at town hall meetings to shouting “You lie” during President Obama's health care address to a joint session of Congress, it seems that the very “squeaky Republican wheels” are getting greased. Their efforts to derail health care reform are having a definite effect on the electorate. The Conservatives resort to distortions and outright lies. They yell, threaten, and wave tea bags. Their rhetoric resonates with the elderly, the poor, and uneducated. Unfortunately, because this health care reform debate is so emotionally charged, a lot of people are succumbing to scripted fear tactics. Every day at my office, I hear the “death panel”, “rationing”, “government run health care” arguments, exactly as the right-wingers on TV present them. And every day Sara Palin, Betsy McCaughey, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, et al, come up with more fuel for the fire. It works! They get to keep their jobs, increase their ratings, and foment further uncertainty at the same time. There is nothing logical in their rants. It’s akin to yelling fire in a crowded theatre.

I am a “Centrist Liberal” and prefer to hear discussed, without distortion or bias, the most important piece of legislation in our lifetime. But if a minority of Senators can filibuster, and because the law requires a 60 percent senatorial majority vote to override, then the minority rules if there aren't the 60 votes. How distorted is this? 40 percent of the senate can control what becomes law and what doesn't.

The “L” word (Liberal) no longer has the hippie, tree-hugger stigma attached. Now Neo-Cons and all that connotes has become the undesired label associated with the Bush administration and its disastrous tenure. I like the following description of Liberal and I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal.

…But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." – John F. Kennedy