{"id":1677,"date":"2009-08-10T21:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-10T21:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2009\/08\/10\/this-is-a-health-care-debate"},"modified":"2009-08-10T21:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-10T21:08:00","slug":"this-is-a-health-care-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=1677","title":{"rendered":"This is a health care ‘debate’?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Whatever “debate” is occurring over health care reform, it isn’t occurring at these town hall meetings that are turning into shoutfests and riots.<\/p>\n

That likely is part of the reason Panhandle residents aren’t being asked to attend congressional town hall meetings sponsored by Republican U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon. It’s either that or the fact that Thornberry knows his constituents, agrees with many of their feelings about health care reform — which basically is this: Don’t mess with health care.<\/p>\n

It’s probably just as well that we aren’t having these so-called “discussions.”<\/p>\n

Travis County residents shouted down Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin. They carried pictures of Doggett with devil’s horns painted on his head. That’s not what I would call reasonable discourse. But that’s just one example of the kind of nonsense we’re witnessing around the country.<\/p>\n

I have no idea whether it’s being staged by lobbyists, or whether they’re sincere, spontaneous expressions of displeasure. The Texas Panhandle is so far removed from the political battlefield, I am not qualified to offer anything more than a guess on what’s driving these near-riots.<\/p>\n

I do know this: The disturbances that are consuming these town halls do not serve the cause of a free society, which depends on all sides being able to be heard. Let everyone speak their mind — and then let those in power decide which side makes the case.<\/p>\n\n

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Whatever “debate” is occurring over health care reform, it isn’t occurring at these town hall meetings that are turning into shoutfests and riots. That likely is part of the reason Panhandle residents aren’t being asked to attend congressional town hall meetings sponsored by Republican U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon. It’s either that or the … Continue reading This is a health care ‘debate’?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}