Here is the now-infamous quote from President Obama on the subject of proposed nationalized health care and and those who oppose it:
But I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.
Compare his statement with the following quotes on the subject of protest and dissent. All but one of the persons cited below are Democrats. The last quote is from a significant and influential German Nazi. I threw it in there as a nod to Nancy Pelosi, who seems to be fascinated with all things Nazi these days. I will leave it up to you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusions. In the mean time, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to report this blog to flag@whitehouse.gov. There is definitely something “fishy” about this posting!
We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.
Martin Luther King Jr.
We do not move forward by curtailing people’s liberty because we are afraid of what they may do or say.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
Harry S. Truman
I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.
Hillary Clinton
We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans…
Bill Clinton
Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive.
John F. Kennedy
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.
Edward R. Murrow
Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.
Hubert H. Humphrey
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Theodore Roosevelt
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
Joseph Goebbels
August 9th, 2009 1:51 pm
That last quote is very powerfully revealing, except that, sadly, most college students don’t know who Joseph Goebbels WAS.
Come to think of it, they mostly don’t know who Edward Murrow was, or Hubert Humphrey.
Most know the name Theodore Roosevelt, but nothing of significance about him or his policies.
All know the NAME Martin Luther King, Jr., but most are stunned when they learn what he really said, and what his policy prescriptions really were, and how unalike modern “civil rights activists” are from him.
One of the best ways to stifle dissent is to keep people ignorant of history.
August 10th, 2009 10:42 am
You mean the socialist policies that he supported? Or the anti-war/anti-violence policies? Or the affirmative action policies?
I am curious to hear what you are trying to imply by this comment.
August 10th, 2009 12:35 pm
I thought I’d add a quote not on your list:
“In a Tight Spot, Pelosi Calls Health Care Critics ‘Un-American'” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/10/tight-spot-pelosi-calls-health-care-critics-american/
August 10th, 2009 12:40 pm
A Seeker
Thanks for the addition. I appreciate your contribution to the discussion. Yes, Ms. Pelosi does tempt me to dig up the old children’s phrase – “It takes one to know one!”
August 10th, 2009 12:53 pm
Dave: by a curious coincidence, see the post here today, “Only Evil Speech Permitted”.
Dr. King would be APPALLED at the murder of the black unborn, and I’m fairly sure he would be been far more active than Jesse or Al in challenging inner-city blacks to “do right”, more on the lines of Bill Cosby.
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/baha/king.html
Note that he died before the disastrous effects of the Great Society on inner-city blacks, before the out of wedlock birthrate skyrocketed, etc.
I think he had much more in common with Clenard Childress, Johnny Hunter and Jesse Peterson than Jesse and Al. His niece agrees….
August 11th, 2009 6:29 am
And Barack Obama.
I just think it is funny that you focus on one or two things, and ignore all of the things that King believed in that you abhor.
August 11th, 2009 8:40 am
I think he basically loved people. I think he was a smart guy. At the time of his death, the evidence was not in yet of the enormous damage that would be done by abortion and welfare, the two deadliest poisons for the inner city black community. I believe he was ideologically predisposed against abortion, and would have learned, quickly, that welfare was toxic. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he WOULD have been a Jesse/Al type, instead of a Clenard Childress, Johnny Hunter or Jesse Peterson. If so, very sad. But I don’t see him tacitly endorsing violence like Jesse/Al and their cronies in and out of the Congressional black caucus, “no justice, no peace” and the like. I don’t see him giving fathers who abandon their children a break and being all understanding and everyting. I don’t see him loving quotas, as opposed to the original meaning of affirmative action, which was to do your best to find a deserving, qualified minority person, when you can, not pretend people are qualified who aren’t. He was too smart for that, and would have seen the enormous damage that would do, without having to live through it, as we have.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he would have given in to the far lefties. Hope not. We’ll never know.