What on god's green earth are the republicans so afraid of with healthcare reform?

[Beaverhausen]

As I hear more and more about the violence and threats, I just can't wrap my head around what is going on.

seriously-what are they so afraid of? What will this 'armageddon' that Steele warned about look like?

[Atman]

1. Honestly, I don't think they know. They're just being told to be afraid.

Faux News, Rush, Hannity, Beck...they all tell them to be ascared. They never tell them WHY, they just use terms like "socialist" and "communist," terms that used to scare them and their parents before them, even though they're clueless as to their meaning. They just know that change is a'comin. And change is always scary if you're a moron.

.

[Warpy]

4. That's exactly it, they're being told to be afraid of BIG BAD WORDS

and most of them are just too damned dumb to know what those words mean and too damned lazy to have read any of the many news stories about what health reform does and what it doesn't do to understand that those BIG BAD WORDS have absolutely nothing to do with the rather timid reform bill that finally got passed.

Stupid people are always suckers for any screwball who gives them permission to hate and supplies them with a target. Rwanda and Bosnia both started with hate radio.

This scares me. Stupidity can kill if it's encouraged to.

[kestrel91316]

2. They want us dead. If we can get access to medical care, that will

not be so easy to accomplish.

[rhett o rick]

6. They dont want to kill you, they just dont care if you die. nm

[kestrel91316]

16. I disagree. We are interfering with their plans for a Christofascist utopia.

[rhett o rick]

20. I call your disagreement and raise you a disagree. The republican party

and the Christian Reich are only tools. The corporate cabal is after power and are only using the Christian Reich as their "Brown Shirts".

[rhett o rick]

3. It has nothing to do with HCR. The republicans decided that they couldnt stop the

popularity of Obama so they conceded to his victory. Didnt you wonder why Cheney and Little Bush went so quietly. Then they decided to do everything in their power to derail the country and blame the Democrats. In 2012 their shadow government with Jeb and Liz will surface and crush the Democrats.

[Andy823]

14. Exactly!

They want president Obama to fail, pure and simple. That's why the have been the party of NO since the election. They staked it all on a plan to make sure anything the president wanted to do would fail. They backed the real crazy side of the party and made them into the "grass roots" teabagers. They figured with all the publicity the teabagers were getting it would scare the democrats and the president, and it almost worked. I think losing Kennedy's seat to Brown woke the president up and he realized he had to get the reform bill passed, and he did it. Now the republicans are scared because they are going to come off looking like idiots when the public find out that all those scary lies they were spreading are not going to come true. They are scared because the teabagers have gong rouge and could very well put out their own crazy candidates in November, and they are scared because they have to either throw the teabagers under the bus, or risk losing the votes of conservatives who have never liked what has been going on since Obama was elected.

They painted themselves into a corner and there is no way out, and they have good reason to be scared since the only ones who are going to stick with them and their tactics are the morons of the party, and that isn't good!

[LoZoccolo]

5. Sometimes thier conspiracy theories are so wildly speculative that they don't talk about them.

They involve such low-probability but high-cost scenarios that they don't want to accept the social cost of admitting to believing them, but are personally afraid.

[veganlush]

7. their simple minded minions have been convinced..

..by the talk radio partisans that just want Obama to fail and are using their big soapboxes to misinform. These simple people don't even know what fascism, communism, socialism are , or even that they are at different places in the political spectrum, they only know they must be bad because Hannity, Beck etc..told them so. What's gonna happen when they find out we have government-run fire departments? They think the country has been taken over by the commie fascist socialist Kenyan from that country called Hawaii.

[justgamma]

8. They are terrified that people

will like it. That the government can do things right. It would take away their main talking points. Of course, their slogan is "Government can't do anything right. Elect us and we'll prove it"

[Joe the Revelator]

9. Freedoms! Forefathers! Constitutions! Eagles!

Really, they just hate nice things.

[jtuck004]

10. I don't think it is fear.

I have read Lakoff, where he talks about the Republican mindset as a stern father telling his children what to do, and others who talk about abusive parents - they seem to me to be much more like that. We are upstarts, daring to legislate a viewpoint. It wouldn't matter if we took a list of ideas from which many came from Repubs, (hey, part of what we just did) - their disrespect of anyone that doesn't do exactly what they say is likely to make them angrier and angrier. They will beat people senseless, with a profound sense of being right.

They are angry, both men and women, and are quite up front about saying they will take this country down in flames before they let the legislative actions stand. These are the kind of actions in which someone shoots off their nose to spite their face. And there are enough of them that they feed on each other, reinforcing each other's behavior.

Some of the same behavior was seen in the 60's, and television coverage of very bloody and fatal encounters finally disgusted the country enough that pressure was brought to bear, yet we are still not finished with that.

If we were doing better financially in the country many people would likely see this for the bullying that it is. But with 20+ million people out of work, millions making far less than they were used to (and felt entitled to), hundreds of thousands still losing their homes, lots of people not eating every meal there is a lot of fuel that could be sucked up in this effort.

could be interesting...

[sandnsea]

11. Soviet style medical care

Legitimate concern. Maybe about 10% of them have a clue of some of the problems that can exist. But those problems can exist anywhere and that's what 100% of them fail to comprehend.

Mostly they're just brainwashed.

[Xenotime]

12. We are going after their money...that's what they are afraid of.

[craigmatic]

13. they're afraid that the era of reagan small government is over

They're also afraid that if using government to help people becomes popular that they'll have to get off their asses and actually do something instead of writing another worthless tax cut bill.

[defendandprotect]

15. Well, there seems to be a "go get your gun" mentality among them...Palin's "RELOAD" . . .

I don't see the press really attempting to try to find out who these people are -

what their histories are --

employed? unemployed? white males? belonging to militias? class status?

assets/savings/health security? foreclosed homes? or are they part of the 2% of the elite?

Certainly there is a strong racist element --

I'm also guessing they're not much in favor of equality or egalitarian systems?

But, I don't really know -- like you, I don't get it.

Morris Dees -- Southern Poverty Law Center -- says there is a tremendous surge in militia

groups. The right wing leadership continues to display what I see as racism and misogynist

outlook -- anti-homophobic.

Near as I can figure, these are pretty much the same people behind closing of women's

clinics and election steals?

And I agree with other posters here who say it seems they are simply unclear themselves

about why they are doing this, but responding to right wing leadership/suggestions?

[applegrove]

17. Their leaders are afraid that more empathy will result for HCR. The feeling of "we are all

in this together". That scares Repukes and their rich masters because it means people may not vote for tax breaks for the rich resulting in no tax revolt, resulting in people who refuse to sink the government in the bathtub cutting government programs resulting in more tax cuts for the rich.

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. Neither side, at this point, cares two pins about health care or the people.

This was strictly about winning. Make no mistake.

[Kievan Rus]

19. Who knows? They're paranoid of pretty much everything

[Winterblues]

21. They are terrified they will be shown up for the hypocrites they truly are

They are terrified that if Democrats are allowed to govern that things will improve and that will show America what Governing is supposed to be like. Of the People By the People and For the People. If Democrats get their way in the Legislative arena Republicans may never win another election..Pretty soon the saying will be "Money talks and BULLSHIT walks" They will be seen as the true Bullshitters while the Majority of Americans put more money into their pockets. I personally am doing that because of Democrats Governing. I was able to apply for and receive Weatherization for my home. Insulation throughout, new windows, weather stripping on all doors and windows,and many other things to seal up my home. That is going to cut my fuel bill, maybe in half and that means more money directly into my pocket. Republicans opposed this program. Not only will I put more money into my pocket but we as a country will buy less oil from OLPEC..

[kctim]

22. Two things

1. Government mandates = loss of individual freedom
2. Massive debt = higher taxes

If you took out government mandates and raising taxes, those opposed would go from the tens of millions down to just the few million who listen to Rush and the others.