Sarah Palin was the GOP's Vice Presidential candidate and is one of the most prominent figures in the Republican party. On Facebook, she has accused President Obama of wanting to create a government “death panel” that would refuse to provide health care to “the sick, the elderly, and the disabled.” She is leveling the unbelievable accusation that Obama wants to commit genocide on a massive scale. Her claim is that Obama is an equal to such evil historic monsters as Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot.
Her talk of a “death panel” is not just a purely false distortion of a serious debate. It creates an incredibly dangerous environment that could encourage individuals to take up violence to stop the impending “downright evil” plan.
I understand that Obama wants health care reform to be bipartisan, but there is simply no negotiating with people who publicly accuse you of planning genocide. As long as such insidious lies are being promoted by the leaders of the Republican Party, a real policy debate will be impossible.
Several important Republicans (Snowe, Collins, Grassley, Enzi, Graham, etc..) claim to want to achieve a bipartisan consensus on health care reform. If they truly want to see health care reform they must denounce these horrible lies and demand that Sarah Palin apologizes. Honest negotiations are impossible as long as they provide implicit consent for those trying to poison the debate with wild accusations. If Republican senators like Grassley, Enzi, and Snowe do not denounce these destructive lies and the liars telling them, it is proof they are not interested in compromise.
They need to stand up in defense of reform or step away from the negotiating table. If they do not try to tone down the insane rhetoric it is a clear indication they are only interested in causing the Democrats a political defeat and not fixing our broken system.
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