Dissent no longer patriotic

Remember this screech from a few years ago?



By now there is widespread coverage of the op-ed piece in USA Today by US Representive Steny Hoyer (D-MD), House Majority Leader, and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House, on the topic of health care insurance reform (note that they've changed the name of their program, rather like "global warming" got morphed to "climate change.")

I bet that Hoyer and Pelosi sure wish they'd insisted they would write the headline. The editor saw straight through to the main point, headlining the piece, "'Un-American' attacks can't derail health care debate." Key graf, referring to the townhall meetings where Democrat representatives have been hotly pressed by their constituents over the proposed legislation:

These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.

Funny how dissent is patriotic when Democrats do it but un-American when anyone else does it.

But it neither starts nor ends with Hoyer and Pelosi.



"'Shut up,' he explained."

"First Amendment rights for me but not for thee" seems to be the operating principle here.