the "rammed down our throats" meme

[0rganism]

The GOP media machine is using it to describe health care reform, and it's everywhere like a bad stink. With one exception, that being some recent interviews with the now-disfavored Frum, every media appearance from these rightwing jokers that I've seen has featured this idea.

Clearly, nothing has been rammed down their throats by the new law. Are they still breathing okay? Swallowing fine? From what I've seen and heard, none of the teahadists are having any trouble at all screaming like angry infants or ingesting the typical diabetes-inducing allotment of fattening foods. Yeah, okay, it's a metaphor, but more to the point, insurance reform is just legislation they dislike, and they have worked themselves into a perpetual tantrum over it. It's not like, say, lying to the UN and congress to start an expensive invasion or anything like that. The republicans marched lockstep to obstruct the legislation, so what were Democrats supposed to do? Fold like usual, I suppose.

What are your ideas? How do we disarm the notion of "rammed down our throats"? What do you say to someone you know who uses this Fox-induced turn of phrase?

[Warpy]

1. "Yeah, the Congress we ELECTED is doing what we ELECTED THEM TO DO."

Throwing that one into their stupid, cud chewing faces is very satisfying.

To resist what a duly elected government is doing is to resist democracy.

We need to make that very clear to them.

[0rganism]

3. I like it.

Emphasis on the fact that this is done of, by, and for the people of this country.

[duhneece]

11. Thank you, thank you

I need short, pithy replies and you've got 'em. thanks for sharing.

[Odin2005]

37. The usual Freeper response is "they were elected to fix the economy..."

"...not push soshulist health care!!!" :eyes:

[Warpy]

48. My response

They were elected to fix everything the Republican Party FUCKED UP.

[DawgHouse]

45. exactly!

[gristy]

2. "You lost! Get over it!"

That's all you need to say to these clowns.

[FormerDittoHead]

40. Works for me.

"We lost the Senate. We lost the Congress. We lost the Presidency.

OK, OK. BUT NOW JUST DON'T DO ANYTHING WE DON'T WANT YOU TO DO!"

[eleny]

4. Like the Invasion of Iraq?

Elections matter, Teabaggers. Get used to it.

Oh, and P.S. - Deficits don't matter.

[DearAbby]

5. "the Teabags"...."Rammed down our throats"...etc.

Scratch the surface of a GOPer you will find an obsessed homophobe. Even their bumper sticker talking points reeks of their obsession.

[0rganism]

20. imho the "throatery" is more about inducing fear of obstructed breathing

I think there probably is a homophobic and/or interracial oral sex angle that they're playing for, too, but in a play for the medulla oblongata you can't do much better than inducing a survival-based fear.

[doc03]

6. That's an advantage the Republicans always have their

political philosophy can be put in simple terms that simple people can understand like "just say no".

[eleny]

8. Yeah, like Hannity's books written at a third grade level

[anigbrowl]

7. You mean the Patriot Act was rammed down our throats? Or the Iraq war?

I don't really think of it as a meme in itself, it's just a metaphor for peoples' feeling they have been forced to accept something they dislike.

Now as regards all the current complaints from the right wing, my response would be 'you lost the election, and the Democrats are just doing what they said they would do if they won the election...and what a majority of people voted for in 2008.' They might come back with some BS about ACORN having stolen the election and so forth - in which case they likely can't be reasoned with; or else say they'll turn things around at the next election - in which case, I don't mind at all. Sure, we'll probably lose a few seats in November - that is what almost always happens the incumbent party in a mid-term election, and it's probably why our elections were structured in that way to begin with.

[0rganism]

13. I guess that's part of it - the Patriot Act and the Iraq War were "bipartisan"

Sure, they were based largely on panicky responses to 9/11 and Big Lies, but they both received significant Democratic support. Health Insurance Reform got zero GOP support.

[anigbrowl]

28. Oh surely

But then I don't think the Tea Party types represent nearly as many Americans as they believe they do, which is one reason they keep going on about 'the silent majority'.

[lame54]

9. Teabagger? Rammed down our throats? Obama's package?...

these people have a way with words

[BrklynLiberal]

12. Bill Maher made a truly hysterical point about htis strange turn of words

that the repukes are using lately.

How Freudian is this language?

[DearAbby]

19. Bill was spot on

don't have to scratch deep to find their obsessive paranoia.

[Initech]

23. Yeah I agree, the phrasing they use has been truly bizarre lately.

[DearAbby]

27. It's TOO BIG!!!..................n/t

[Beetwasher]

10. I Think They Like Huge "Packages" Rammed Down Their Throats

Methinks they doth protest too much.

[spanone]

14. we had two wars and the patriot act rammed down our throats...and what about that torture?

[0rganism]

16. can't use that: the wars and patriot act were clearly bipartisan efforts

Shoddy reasoning behind them aside, W got the Democrats to play along.

Torture is a bit more ambiguous, but AFAIK most of it went down without any congressional oversight at all.

[MadMaddie]

15. Two words, "We Won"!!

[Crunchy Frog]

17. Delete.

[0rganism]

26. Hell, *I* can't remember it either!

The elected Democrats have been, and will probably continue to be, incredible wimps for as long as I can remember, and as far as I can foresee. Even this token stand is at least as much a giveaway to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies as it is a benefit for the common person.

[mariawr]

18. its gop psych-ops and subliminal messaging. nt

[0rganism]

22. Yes, now how do we deprogram it? that's the trick

I think it's essential to have a counter-proposal, something equally suggestive that can replace "ramming down our throats", or at least compete with it.

[charlie]

21. Terrible thing, innit?

[Crunchy Frog]

24. They probably don't even remember the last time the Democrats

actually stood up for something against RW pressure. It was probably something they never expected to see again. Of course they're sputtering mad. They put everything they had into stopping it and the Dems did it anyway. It's like the reaction of a spoiled child the first time a parent actually puts their foot down and refuses to allow it to have its way. It's a gigantic toddler tantrum.

I would respond with "elections have consequences".

[NHDEMFORLIFE]

25. By taking a page from their playbook

Keep repeating, "The majority rules. Would our friends across the aisle be suggesting that we abandon that basic concept?"
Say it over and over and over again, even when it is not answering the question that has been posed.
That's exactly how RWers play the game of perception creation.

[zbdent]

29. well, when you act like a toddler with diaper rash and throw tantrums,

maybe you need your medicine shoved down your throats, a**holes ...

[0rganism]

30. how about: "stop whining and swallow your medicine"

Upon reflection, seems like we need to play the parents here. The reply ought to be curt, dismissive, and to the point, without being completely uncaring. Maybe something that emphasizes the benefits the toddlers receive and the necessity of cooperation.

[pipi_k]

31. If I were inclined to discuss this sort of thing with them...

I think I would ask them exactly HOW their lives have been inescapably changed.

Right now. What awful things have happened to them...


I think they're just going along with the idea that they have to ACT outraged even though they don't have a fucking clue what's supposed to be so outrageous.

[ejbr]

32. My response to rammed down our throats?

Open wide! :wow:

[PeaceNikki]

33. Got this from balloon-juice and use it often

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/03/22/were-gonna-ram-it-ram-it-ram-it-up-your/

The bill was passed with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, as required by law and Senate rules. It was then passed in the House by majority rule and in accordance with all House Rules.

It was done so by a Democratic majority elected sixteen months ago along with a Democratic President who campaigned daily on Health Care reform, and who received the most votes in the history of American elections and won by the widest margin in decades.

The bill was crafted quite openly, after a year and a half of public debate, and the exact Senate bill that was passed in the House yesterday has been available for people to read and discuss for three entire months. This was the slowest, most open, most thoroughly discussed piece of legislation in my lifetime.

Anyone who says this was “rammed down” anyone’s throats simply does not know what they are talking about. But hey- ride that wave of anger. It has really served the Republicans well so far.

[blm]

34. Gingrich allowed just TWO HOURS of debate for impeachment of a president. We had lies rammed down

our throats so Bush and Cheney could ram their desired WAR through.

We had Bush and Cheney rammed through by the Supreme Court because they couldn't seem to find a way to WANT TO have every vote counted in Florida.

Do they REALLY want to hang their hats on the idea that a YEARLONG debate to fashion a healthcare reform bill is just too quick? What a pack of asshat hypocrites.

[opihimoimoi]

35. The HCB was "VOTED down your Throats"....without the GOPiacs Help...

In America....Ya supposed to lose like ma Man...like GORE did...not win and LOSE later like Bush did...made himself into Joke he did...

[Odin2005]

36. Like the PATRIOT Act and the IWR were rammed down our throats?

[FrenchieCat]

38. Pres. Obama said he encourages to run on repealing the bill.....

Let them chew on that!

[Ian David]

39. We're gonna ram it down their throats until Freedom dribbles down their chins...

... and sticks to their chest hairs in Patriotic little gobs of Liberty.

[JBoy]

41. It was debated for over a year. That's the slowest "ramming" in history.

[0rganism]

43. perhaps that passes for a "ramming" from today's Dems...

Maybe the teahadists have a point? This "health insurance reform" process might well be about as close to ramming as we're likely to see from the current majority.

[Roland99]

42. How about Tom DeLay and his brutal tactics on the House floor for 3hrs after close of voting

for the Medicare Part D program.

[stevedeshazer]

44. You said it, brother.

k/r

[patrice]

46. Ask them when, exactly, they started following the debate, how often they read about it and

chronologically what were the main points they identified in the discussion.

I guess I should include a sarcasm smilie here, because you'll not be allowed even one of those questions and even if you do get these questions out, you'll get no coherent answers.

[izzybeans]

47. I've read it as if it were a request rather than a complaint

It is the safeword for the teabaggers.