The common stereotype is that most college students are liberal and that the media is liberal too, unless of course you’re Fox News.
But we all know that every campus has its fair share of students from each of the political parties. Most of all, every campus has its fair share of people who have no political opinion at all.
On Tuesday, three people were protesting for the impeachment of President Barack Obama. Could this be the official group of conservatives or Republicans at UH? Have the campus right suddenly grown tired of studying for tests and final projects and now decided to hold a protest during the last week of school?
As it turned out, my speculations were inaccurate; this group was neither conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. The group was representing Lyndon H. Larouche, Jr. LaRouche is well known for being one of the craziest far right, anti-elite political head cases of our time.
One trip to the LaRouche website is enough to judge the credibility of LaRouche himself and all of the followers that comprise his movement. LaRouche is infamous for his conspiracy theories and outlandish charges. LaRouche has always been at the center of political controversey. As a matter of fact, LaRouche is such a joke that most newspapers won’t publish a story about him.
According to an article published on the New York Times website, Robert Mackey provided a little history of LaRouche. “Greg Johnson, an editor for The New York Times who once wrote newspapers and television news programs, generally considered Mr. LaRouche too loony to write about,” Mackey said.
LaRouche won’t be spared this time. Everyone — especially UH students — should know about the crazy, divisive politics of LaRouche. His messages are never based on facts and the movement he spawned is laughable.
There is a part of the LaRouche effect that isn’t laughable, though. Some of the messages that the LaRouche groups spreads are passed on by other groups that don’t claim to have any relation to LaRouche.
During the midterm elections, many crazy things were said and spread throughout national campaigns that closely resemble evolutions of LaRouche conspiracies.
There were absolutely no Republicans or conservatives that voted for the healthcare reform proposed and passed by Obama. The unanimous Republican opposition could have been a traditional play from the partisan politics playbook aimed at blocking the other party’s progress, or maybe it was something else. Before the midterms and before the healthcare reform bill actually passed, many Republicans including Sarah Palin (a potential presidential challenger in 2012), spouted this death panel idea throughout the media.
Some of the most notable peddlers of this death panel theory include other prominent Republicans or conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley and Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann.
Despite the tenacious dissmissal by several non-partisan organizations that the death panels don’t exist, they still became a part of the national healthcare debate and were widely expressed.
There really is no better word than insanity for a person or group of people who continue to argue and insist that something is real and true when it never existed in the first place. This is extremely ironic, considering the nice guy who was protesting for LaRouchepac.com seemed to be pretty normal and friendly in person. He wanted to tell me that his Santa Clause outfit was really just a symbol.
Sanity Clause visited UH on Tuesday, not Santa Clause. Sanity Clause informed me that he travels around in broad day bringing sanity to anyone, despite being naughty or nice.
There’s probably not many college students who pencil Christmas lists anymore, but if I were to pencil my own, the first thing on it would be that people like Sanity Clause and Larouche come back to reality from their delusional world.
Andrew Taylor is an economics senior and may be reached at [email protected].
Welcome to current academic standards. I had attempted to post a comment that exceeded two small paragraphs and was told it was too long. THATS NUTS!
Mine was automatically deleted by the admin. Quick work! (Probably a glitch in software.)
The comment will there for come in small bites.
If you haven't been able to find the Death Panels, you should know that "Death Panel" is not the official name. Try searching for "Independent Payment Advisory Board."
That is incorrect Mari.
The independent Payment Advisory Board is a board established by the new health care reform act passed by congress and essentially places a 'cap' on the total amount of dollars spent on health care. It has nothing to do with decisions involving any patient.
Death Panels were dreamed up by extremists to suggest panels of people would decide who lives and who dies.
There are no such panels.
If you want to kick up a little political dust you could go after the Hospital Ethics Committees who struggle and wrestle with recommendations for end of life care.
That will be a hot issue until all of us learn that we are not going to live forever.
::
GP
Dude — when accountants kill people by refusing to fund treatment, the people wind up just as dead as if they got shot by a mugger. The fact that it is completely anonymous doesn't make it any less morally disgusting.
The doctors who stood trial at Nuremburg all argued that it was "nothing personal." That's the same argument that you are making in defense of the IPAB.
let this be a lesson: GPackwood delivers logically sound rebuttal. Mari then equates the IPAB (and it's defenders, apparently) to a gang of mugger nazis lead by joseph mengele wearing a ski mask, i guess.
there is no explaining the benefits of health care reform to wingnuts and teabaggers. the only way to deal with these people is to just pass legislation that will improve everyone's lives and be done with it.
The congress had an excellent opportunity to pass legislation that will improve everyone's life. It was the John Conyers bill for single-payer insurance, that would give us a publicly-funded health insurance plan like that of France. Instead, they adopted the Obama plan which is simply a big giveaway to the private insurance companies, and a reduction (as GPackwood apparently concedes) of Medicare benefits.
do you have a picture of Sanity Clause?
These anti-Obama people don't know anything at all! If this group is doing a protest during Finals time, that shows just how dumb they really are (shouldn't they be studying or taking finals?). Also, I think this group should be disolved from official UH student groups.
I hope Mr. Taylor expresses at least as much concern with his economics department and the failure of the bails-out that have proceeded from the Bush-Cheney administration through the Obama administration. I recommend strongly that he investigate the Glass-Steagall act of Franklin D Roosevelt, as a step in a solution to the current crisis. Otherwise, since he admits to being part of an academic department, whose "experts" have all shown themselves to be failures in this current crisis, one would have to worry about his ability to discern reality from fantasy.
larouche thought that the beatles were part of a british psy-ops program to weaken young people's resistance to communist influence. also, the queen of england trafficked chinese opium. basically, larouche-ites are either mentally ill, or just doing it for attention.
during the clinton lewinsky "affair" larouchians "defended" bill even though they didn't like him. they suggested it was a set up between lewinksy and kenneth star. they didn't like them either. divide and conquer is the name of the "zeigeist"
sorry i left out the t in zeitgeist. but i am sure the larouchians wouldn't be looking at this thread to correct me…
they've were around long before lyndon ran for president in 80.