In Elko, Nevada, this morning, he told a small and cranky crowd:
Barack Obama wants to steal your money through taxes, just like some guy off the street wants to steal my flat-screen TV.
I was standing with a group of 12 registered nurse union activists who stumbled upon his rally. We were pretty shocked to hear this racist claptrap. In public.
Sadly it got worse.
As his crowd cheered, he continued:
“There is an insurgency happening in America. It started in 2000, when Al Gore tried to destroy the constitution and steal that election through judicial fiat. Barack Obama is continuing the insurgency today…and he will continue to do so during the time of President McCain. He will try to steal this election, and he will keep trying.”
So, Obama wants to steal TVs and elections?
Afterwards, one of his supporters stomped up to a very gentle lady named Donna Smith, a healthcare activist with CNA/NNOC and a star of Michael Moore’s SiCKO. He shouted, “Why do you have to come and spoil somebody else’s party, Goddamnit! Don’t give me that crap, I know what you’re up to!”
And you know what? Nothing has given me more hope in recent months than to hear this racist, nasty, totalitarian, toxic bile spewing from his mouth.
Take a look at these two busses.
On the left, you see the nurses “Drive for Healthcare” bus. It’s part of a national bus tour and outreach campaign based on healthcare report cards on the two candidates, as issued by the nation’s largest RN union, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
We’re on a national tour with a wrapped bus that sports a ten-foot high version of our report card. We’re also mailing it to non-partisan voters, calling ‘em, and putting it in ads across the country. (Obama gets a B+; McCain gets an F; each is encouraged to support John Conyers’ bill HR 676 which guarantees healthcare with a Medicare for All/ “single-payer” system.)
On the right, you see the hate bus. It’s called the “Stop Obama” tour, it’s run by some of the nastiest right-wingers in California politics.
The two busses met, randomly, in a parking lot in Elko, Nevada. We were on our way back from an editorial board meeting at the local paper. They were hosting an under-attended rally in a Nevada park.
America’s choice could not be clearer. Forward or back. Work through, and past, the dark side of the American character…or appeal to the best in our national spirit?
After Donna got yelled at, two different undecided voters approached and told her they though she deserved better…and they asked about the healthcare plans of the two candidates. In a crazy world of recession, depression, and FOX News, everyday Americans know they can count on their nurses.
And those voters were the reason we have hope.
American’s are working through deep prejuedice in this election. We’re staring in the face our nation’s original sin. One man, at the Cowpoke Café in Lovelock, Nevada, threw our handbill back in our face, and said, “This one is not even a citizen. He just wants to take away my bible and my gun.”
And you know what? We just might get it right.
Because for every nasty hater out there, we have met many more Americans just looking for a fair shake. Many of them are already healthcare voters. Gail, a 60-year-old woman in the small town of Lovelock, NV told us of her husband’s struggle with prostate cancer, her struggle with emphysema, and their struggle for health insurance. She sighed and touched the arm of one of our nurses when she said, “I’m from the South…this is hard from for me. But, healthcare matters. I pay $800 a month and I don’t even know what I’m getting.”
Look at the busses. A nasty incoherent message…or a detailed policy for healthcare justice.
Which do you think has more of an impact?
Fear or hope?
Healing or hating?
Go to Source
