Ok. I can handle criticism fairly well. I’ve got Nancy Pelosi calling me a Nazi. I’ve got John Dingell-berry comparing me to the KKK. I’ve got the police roughing me up and throwing me into jail. I’ve got neighbors accusing me of getting into trouble on purpose. However, the criticism I cannot understand or accept is from those on our side of the Health Care legislation who’ve stayed home during all these Town Hall debates.
The media is famous for reporting on things about which they know nothing. Remember Mitch Albom reporting on a basketball game like he was there and then to find out he wasn’t? Now I’m getting comments from journalists, wanna-be journalists, wanna-be activists and wanna-be pundits telling me we need to elevate the debate and to be more civil and high-minded in our tone.
If these people want to come out from behind their desks and actually participate in the discussion at all on a personal level then I might tend to give more credence to what they’re asking of me. However, they are either a) ill-informed or b)lazy or c)scared. For, if they had attended the 2 town hall meetings I’ve attended in the last 5 days they might take a different tack.
Firstly, the mainstream media is portraying us as ranting lunatics. This is not true. Each question that was asked of John Dingell-berry was pre-screened. And how do I know this? The questions in the second session on the 6th were the same as the questions in the first session on the 6th. We let the Congressman answer and then we told him what we thought of his answer as it is outlined in the bill. We didn’t go in the room yelling and screaming, we were responding to his canned answers. The criticism I’ve received from friends and colleagues comes from swallowing media reporting whole and reflects an inability or lack of desire to get all the facts.
Secondly, what good did the tea parties do with regard to the Porculus bill and TARP legislation? Nothing directly was affected by our protests. We were civil and stood and yelled at empty buildings and felt a bit better about ourselves. The biggest benefit of the tea parties was to give us the ability to attract more people to our side and to get some exposure to our side of the debate. These town halls are serving the same purpose. If we were placid, passive, quiet, meek and unobtrusive like these critics want us to be, we would not be on the evening news. I wouldn’t have been interviewed by Fox, WJR, The Politico, The Detroit News and others. I wouldn’t have received hundreds of emails and calls from all over the country. We would continue to be steamrolled by the administration just like we were with TARP and Porculus. These critics like Newt Gingrich and even some of my friends on the right haven’t lead from the front like the rest of us. They’re trying to lead from the rear of their computers or their desks.
Its awful easy to sit in front of a computer screen or a desk or in your office and decry the protesters that are actually doing something tangible to protect and preserve our constitution. I believe that the 1st amendment to the constitution is not just an outline of our rights, but rather it is also an outline of our duties as American citizens. We have the right to political speech, to the redress of grievances and the right to assemble. Like going to church regularly, all the words in private and over the phone don’t replace the fellowship and power of assembling with people of like mind. Words without deeds are dead. We have the DUTY to be heard. We have the DUTY to be angry. We have the DUTY to be courageous in the face of violence and police brutality.
If you are critical of how we’re doing it out here in the trenches I would challenge you to get off your ass and do something better. Don’t sit in your ivory tower and try to dictate to me what I’m doing wrong! I don’t tell you how to act. I don’t tell you what you should be doing about Health care reform or anything else. Unlike you, I don’t criticize activists. Why? Because they’re the ones doing all the blasted work! I don’t ask anyone to do anything that I am not willing to or have not already done myself. You are a hypocrite if you sit idly by and do nothing physically to get involved in this fight for our freedom and liberty, and, frankly, for the very existence of our country itself.
I love all the hundreds and hundreds of people I’ve met at rallies and tea parties and meetings and conventions. However, there are some pseudo-intellectuals chattering on Twitter and Facebook and the Blog-scape that haven’t been showing up to help. Get your butt down to help me then and show me the error of my ways. Show us how your evolved approach is so much more effective at stopping this tyranny. Show me the error of my ways. If you show up at a rally or Town Hall and get your questions answered and you affect the debate then I’ll listen to you. Until you show up, however, and actually, physically, come out and do something, until then, mind your own damn business and leave the work to the rest of us who are willing to sacrifice everything including our personal freedom and safety. The 2000 people at the Town Hall on the 6th and the thousands more at other town halls across the country are doing the work that you aren’t apparently willing to do. Maybe we should outsource it to ACORN.
It has actually been said to me that Adams and Hamilton and the like didn’t shout and grandstand. Unreal. What do you call the meetings at the Old South Meeting House? What do you call Sam Adams’ speeches? What do you call Paul Revere’s leading of the men to destroy the tea in the Boston Harbor? What do you call those who stood their ground at Lexington and Concord? Grandstanders? Jeez. These patriots yelled and screamed and ACTED. They didn’t start the American Revolution, the British did. Just like Obama, SEIU, AFL-CIO and Nancy Pelosi are starting this one. Well, when I protect my home, I tend to yell at the guy trying to rob it.
Since when did a healthy debate become a violent issue. Since when did the members of Congress who raise their voices on the floor at each other become violent and rude to each other.
I am very proud to be a member of my group–a non paid activists–who will use the first amendment right to stand up, be heard, and demand to be heard. I will NOT; however, become one of the goon squads and cause violent actions to take place.
We bring facts, they bring lies and goons. We stand strong with chants not curses or racist remarks. We are better than they are and they cannot stand it.
The only way they feel they will win is to revert to old Chicago-style street violence.
I will stand strong and continue to carry on in the foot steps of my Founding Fathers. I am a Patriot and am damn proud to be one.
Motor City Mac is a leader. Most people are followers. The reason we are such a different country today than the one our founders sought to establish is that we have fewer leaders per capita than our forefathers did. The weaklings calling for “civil, reasoned, polite, effective” discourse, (which words in their mouths are merely euphamisms for: mealy-mouthed, vascillating, un-intellectual, un-studied, and ignorant) are themselves the cause of this civil discord. If it wasn’t for their cowardice in the public square over the past thirty-five years, we wouldn’t have to now defend the very foundations of our nation. Put up or shut up pansies! Otherwise get the hell out of our way. We will fight Nazi principles (try looking up the definition first, Nancy) face to face by any means necessary. If we don’t, we are as to blame for our own demise as the lutheran church in early twentieth-century Germany and the white-moderate christians of the American South over a century and a half.
History repeats according to patterns. Motor City Mac resembles our founding fathers. Obama resembles Lenin. And you hand-wringers resemble every do-nothing faction of cowards that have been overrun by tyranny since the beginning of time. You need to sit down and shut up. Your inaction is so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying anyway.
Hey Motor City Mac,
Keep showing them. they are the dumb ones not us! The truth is this obamacare is all about facism which is socialism. they will start to kill us and he isnt even really the president he is a muslim. We are patriots. They are foreign. we need to attack. hitler tried to do this too. but we stopped him then and we will stop him now. the are getting the gas chambers ready as we speak and setting up death panels to choose who lives and who dies. and the worst is he isnt even american! what a scam. so it isnt time to be quite and respectful. it is time to shout at the top of our lungs until america wakes up. it took peral harbor in 1941. we need to be loud and obnoxious. Shout all you can. insult the traitors. demand the birth certificate. stop facism in its tracks. stop the gas chambers. stop the trains transporting our patriots to the FEMA campus. we will lie down on the tracks.
we support you and are out there with you. you know you are right!
Mark:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I have to say…I’m at a loss for words. I’m thoroughly overwhelmed by the passion here. And, I’ve never been thanked by a progressive statist marxist liberal socialist commie before either!
Mac
Macaque, You’re OK in my book. Mr. Pinko.
Mac
Okay everyone, please just calm down. Just kidding! Seriously, if you are getting feedback Matt, it is because you are a leader. The liberals would love to tear you down and make you look like a fool. We all have to remember this cause is way bigger than any one of us. We have to be wise as serpants and gentle as doves. I will call you soon!
Keep up the good work. The fact shy name callers show themselves
for what they are. The let the government help me wimps they are. The overwhelming problems of
our once great country are the weak liberals to claim. While they whine and give more power to the gov. I’ll
fight,work and yell if I feel like it.
To all you do nothing limp wrists go on
and support your morally corrupt hero’s. Flint Man with Pride Terry
Great work! Those guys at your competition (I don’t need to say who) don’t even have a clue! Keep em coming! I have a Political Commentary site of my own at White Rabbit Cult… I will place a link back to your blog. Much Thanks!
Thank you for the enlightening article. I will follow you via RSS.
Looks like these guys have plenty of outsourcing opportunities available.
Lewis Hamilton is such a fool for behaving so badly behind the wheel of that Mercedes. But he must have been really charged up after setting the fastest time in practice for the Australian Grand prix. He should have sunk a few beers and had an early night .