What Sarah Palin and Other Patriotic Traitors Think About Health Care Reform: "Soylent Green Is People!"

Like the U.S. army major who "saved" a Vietnamese village by destroying it, the patriotic traitor seeks to preserve his country by bringing it down. Recently I watched Seven Days in May . In this political thriller, an American president has negotiated a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets over the objection of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a four-star general played by Burt Lancaster. After the Senate ratifies the treaty, the general is certain the Soviets have pulled a fast one and will soon launch a first strike. So he plots to overthrow the government. The president gets wind of the coup and, in a tense scene scripted by Rod Serling, confronts the general in the Oval Office: "You want to defend the United States of America, then defend it with the tools it supplies you with -- its Constitution! You ask for a mandate, general -- from a ballot box! You don't steal it after midnight, when the country has its back turned."

The president's words are dismissed by the general, who can't accept that his warped sense of patriotism has driven him to commit treason. Of course, he's a fictional character. Sarah Palin, however, is real, although she often acts like something conjured up in a novelist's overheated imagination. Her deliberately distortive statement on President Obama's health care plan, in which she again exploits her son Trig, is just the latest rhetorical IED detonated by an increasingly unhinged right-wing insurgency. The Soylent Green scenario she paints, in which the elderly and disabled will be euthanized and then presumably rendered into energy bars, should disqualify her from further consideration as a serious contender for high office. And yet her supporters will hail this patriotic traitor as a great American.

That's the third time I've used the T-word. I want to be careful: I'm not accusing Obama's opponents of treason. Republicans are the ones who regard their presidents as monarchs. From Sept. 12, 2001 till the Iraq war started going south in the summer of 2003, you were subject to attack if you criticized George W. Bush. Let's not forget what happened to the Dixie Chicks for delivering an innocuous slap to this insecure little man. But there were many low-profile examples of harassment and intimidation against those who wouldn't keep quiet about the emperor's butt-nakedness.

So go ahead, say any non-racist thing you please about Obama. That's one of our strengths. Gore Vidal put it best in his response to "an apostle of good taste at The New York Times," who took exception to his treatment of Richard Nixon: "The apostle was English and did not know that although the sovereign of his native islands is called Our Queen, the emperor of the West is known to us aficionados as The Goddamned President."

When I call Sarah Palin a patriotic traitor, I'm not equating her with Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling, or Kim Philby. She's not aiding and abetting a foreign power. Note the adjective. I have no reason to doubt that she loves the United States. But like the general in Seven Days in May, she'll go to any length to maintain her parochial and jingoistic image of it. As would Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, the teabaggers, the birthers, and the deathers.

On November 2, 2004, these people were content with the U.S. government. Bush was reelected and the Republicans won decisive majorities in both houses. Five years later, they loathe and distrust their leaders. I wonder what happened. They revere the Constitution, but were silent when the Bush-Cheney administration repeatedly violated it, especially the Fourth Amendment. They never questioned the trillion-plus dollars we poured into an unnecessary war, but when Obama proposes to spend as much on a health care plan they squeal like pigs. As Christopher Hitchens likes to say, you can't eat enough to vomit enough at such hypocrisy. But they're not hypocrites! Not in their eyes. Their cognitive dissonance is as profound as their belief system is primitive. If Bush had nuked Tehran, they would have gone out the next morning and justified mass murder. If the U.S. military did attempt a coup against Obama, they would find ways to defend that as well. Their values and morals hide their seething nihilism. It's a miracle, then, that no one has been injured during these town hall debates.

But if Obama passes health care reform, if the sane majority stick with him, watch out. The patriotic traitor will show his true colors, and they're not red, white and blue.

Comments

[garymc8]

Since the gop thought it was OK to give lots of money to the super rich I think its OK to take it away. Let the top 1% buy PUBLIC HEALTH CARE FOR ALL to pay for their outrageous SINS OF GREED.

[coloradodreaming]

Thank you.....Thank you.....Thank you. My Saturday morning starts with a positive outlook. Please keep up the good work and exposing the true enemies of the US. What used to be a country of compassion for it's citizens is slowly becoming the country of I got mine, now you try and get yours. When I take a look at the states where the biggest uproar is coming from I can't help but think of the poor health care, poor education and poor living conditions for a large majority of the people who are doing the most damage to this discussion. Do many of the people who need the most feel that backing the GOP is going to help their children and grandchildren. What they will get is a 1930's Dust Bowl.

[drlouise]

What about the federal funding to the public education of students with disabilities that the GOP keeps eliminating. If it weren't for some brave Dems like Mondale and Humphrey Trig would probably be off in an institution somewhere. Does this woman know no history?

[Horus45]

"Does this woman know no history?"

No, of course not!

She made it quite obvious during the election that she was a Dolt!

[moongal6]

I believe we are overlooking the obvious.
The citizen from the great state of Alaska, does not twitter, does not FB, does not write pertinent articles.
The people who will be funding her 2012 campaign are the people behind the curtain.
This is SOP for the GOP.
If she, as the messenger, can help quash health care reform, the she's their guy in 2012.
This how the grand ol party works, always has.

[TSAQ]

I've said for many years, that the (Republicans) think the (FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS) are their personalized bank account. (Rev. Al Sharpton and another man) posted an article on this website, stating that the (Republicans) view the (FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS) as their ("private cash cow"). The picture is clear why certain individuals (Sarah Palin & Co.) are lying about what they have endorsed. (PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S) proposal on (LIVING WILL CONSULTATIONS) for the elderly, will be paid for by Medicare and (MEDICARE) is paid by (FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS). In other words, the (Republicans) so-called (personalized bank account).

[antiprop1]

Patriot, we see this word thrown around a lot. It is much more patriotic to be an educated, informed citizen who weighs the evidence and looks at both points of views, and then makes a decision. Their is a word for the American who's narrow ideology is always right and stifles debate. It is fascist.

[SimianNation]

Now is the time for all good men & women to come to the aid of their country...and become vocal against these patriot tra itors,

[SimianNation]

Now is the time for all good men & women to come to the aid of their country...and become vocal against these patriot traitors,

[moongal6]

We heard you the first time.

[peacegurl48]

I wonder how Ms Palin feels about the VA since she has such reverence for our troops; how can she allow them to be treated by, gasp, Government-run healthcare?
I wonder if her parents use Medicare?
While she speaks of death panels I wonder if she's ever considered how many people, with no quality of life, are kept "alive" so that the money keeps rolling in?

[garymc8]

I would be REALLY NERVOUS if i were palin's aging parents. She'll push them into the snow bank in August just to take every penny in their pocket.

[peacegurl48]

It is the typical Right Wing Hypocrisy; how can you be a Patriot and despise the Federal Government?
How can you "love" the UNITED States and systematically sow dis-unity each time you speak?
Hate Government health care but love Medicare and the VA?
It floored me when Palin used the term "Orwellian" because it so describes her and her ilk.

[LightningJoe]

Such is the situational blindness of the programmed Reich base, that your careful and conditioned use of the word "traitor" will be decried to the heavens -- IF any of the under-educated tools have the intellectual endurance to read that far into your post.

And all the while, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Rielly throw the word around like beads at Mardi Gras, to paint all of their political opponents with the worst term they can imagine. ("Terrorist" is (finally) becoming old hat, in terms of the Reichteous outrage it engenders).

You are quite careful in your use of the term, but they just don't care, so long as their arch-enemy, the Fairness Doctrine, has been handily excised from the discussion, to prevent sense from taking a foothold. Just so long as their advertisers don't pull, on them (good luck with that, Glenn).

[ericmiami]

Thanks, Ariel. It's easy to (for me) to get discouraged. How damn stupid can we be? Your words are encouraging.

[Linda Maddox]

And I agree with you. It is sooo refresing to read what someone with a brain wrote.

[huffingt]

What is the media obsession with this grand mother who quit in the middle as she couldn't ha ck it due to mar ital, fin ancial and eth ical problems?
Prez is right.
TV med ia focus on Gar ba ge

[huffingt]

What is the media obsession with this grand mother who quit in the middle as she couldn't hack it due to marital, financial and ethical problems?
Prez is right.
TV media focus on Gar bage

[pissedmichael]

Almost from her introduction to the rest of America, I've seen Sarah Palin as the mother of the candidate in the original story 'The Manchurian Candidate.'