I’m sure they’re perfectly sweet people. You don’t, however, seem to care that they are horribly, dysfunctionally misinformed. You don’t seem to include that in your considerations.

You’re right, if I sat next to these people without talking to them, I might never know that they believe everything Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachmann tell them — that I hate my country, that I want to take away all their freedoms, that Obama is a socialist out to destroy America, that the healthcare bill includes mandatory abortions, forced gay acceptance training, death panels for grannies and Palin kids and a secret agreement that at least one of your kidneys will end up in the belly of an illegal.

Please don’t pull this crap of trying to make us feel ashamed of our behavior in this thread because we aren’t sweet and nice to the protestors who accuse us of being monsters. The people at those protests were motivated to take time off from jobs they desperately need because they believed it when they were told that this healthcare bill is a greater threat to their “freedoms” than terrorism, that the evil Pelosi-Obama-Soros triumvurate were just seconds away from handing the nuclear football over to Fidel Castro, and that, as Ronald Reagan put it in 1961 (speaking about Medicare), that it would inevitably lead to the USA becoming just like the old Evil Empire.

These people are ignorant hypertribalists. The difference between us is, I still consider those people Americans and human beings and brethren. They would consider me evil and disqualified as an American and part of the vast liberal conspiracy. Yet you seem to think it is the liberals who are insufficiently civil. Fascinating.

It was a spontaneous protest.

So Members of Congress have enough time to organize “spontaneous protests” now, huh?

Maybe they should stick around and actually try to do their day jobs

Honestly, many of you folks remind me of a bunch of 7 year-olds in a treehouse with a “No Gurls Allowed” sign and giggling over a Playboy magazine – while excitedly chattering over something you know nothing about.

The protest today was done by normal people. Seriously. You could actually sit right next them on a bus and not know that they were patriotic God-fearing, freedom-loving Americans.

The moron with the concentration camp photo was..a moron. I was there today and never saw that. I think that most of the people there today would have been offended by that sign, so I suspect there is more to the story. Yes, the right has excessive characters – just like the left.

By the way, although most of you derisively refer to the protesters as “Teabaggers”, you should know that this was not a “Tea Party” event. In fact, I saw very few Tea Party signs.

It was a spontaneous protest. What I DID see were many thousands of concerned Americans with serious resolve. Most of whom I spoke with had taken the day off from work. They are not the caricatures you wish they were.

Many are probably your neighbors and you don’t even know it.

“Quick, tell me whether those people being arrested over there are Code Pinkers or Teabaggers, so I know whether to yell “America, love it or leave it!” at the people being arrested or “Leave them alone, this is America, not the Soviet Union!” at the cops!”

The Left is a disorganized MESS. We can’t even agree on a basic platform and its unfocused. I don’t know why I have to keep saying this. The Right is focused and sings the same tune at all times. The Left is everywhere at once, some focus on the War(s), others focus on Social Justice and others focus on Civil Rights.

No, No, No!

We need to be FOCUSED on one GOAL at a time until its FINISHED. If its Single Payer Health Care, then beat that drum until its LAW, forget about Civil Rights for LGBT for example, they’ve waited this long, they would wait another political cycle. How come there was so much energy placed on Maine’s legalizing of Same Sex Marriages but we can’t even get people to show up in support of Single Payer in Washington? You see what I mean, its unfocused, shows no discipline won’t take on the fire and brimstone theory of the Black Church.

We need the Labor/Union’s Money and the Black Church’s Rhetoric

As MLK once said “Make It Plain”, constant political lingo doesn’t work for a population that largely doesn’t understand how Congress works, why explain it to them in terms only the Hard Core can understand?

This is why we’re talking about a bs-filled “Public Option”, like a blob its undefined and not something MEATY like Single Payer or better yet Medicare For All, which is something a 5 year old can understand.

Until we on the left say we need to focus, focus, focus, its a lost cause.