Thanks for the thoughtful op-ed, Nooneisabovethelaw!

ps. enjoyed the play on words!

Just wondering: How come on the news I never see single parents, minorities, unemployed bread winners, families on social services or young parents screaming and disrupting town hall meetings? They always appear to be middle-aged or elderly white people. Why is that? 

 Good Post !

--virgil

Oh man, thanks for the laugh today.  I mean seriously, generalizations are my favorite thing in the world.  I love things based solely on biased opinion and not on fact.

Hehehehe.

I am going to bookmark this and return to it whenever I need a laugh and to remind me that when all else fails, liberals always have generalizations to turn to.  Conservatives are crazy!  Pig latin!  They won't listen to you just cause you're a minority!!!  Religious wingnuts...uh yeah!  But us Democrats, we don't judge anybody, we except everyone's ability to have their own feelings, except yours!

It makes me wonder....when are they going to come up with new insults?  These ones...well, I mean, you can only make the same generalizations so many times before it starts to get old.   Since these statements aren't based on any type of factual NON-BIASED information, you'd think they could make up something new to keep it interesting.

Oh, and catpaw?

To answer your question:

Just wondering: How come on the news I never see single parents, minorities, unemployed bread winners, families on social services or young parents screaming and disrupting town hall meetings? They always appear to be middle-aged or elderly white people. Why is that? 

Um, how do you know that none of these people are single parents?  Or minorities?  Just because they don't LOOK like a minority you assume they aren't?  Wow.  How do you know these people aren't unemployed bread winners or families on social services?

Can you provide me with anything, besides your opinion, that actually can make your statement seem like anything OTHER than another lame smear attempt from the left?  Have you personally interviewed and spoken with ALL of these people at ALL of these town hall meetings to determine their race (you shouldn't think about race so much, it's racist) or job status?

No?

Imagine that.

wndr, you make some good points. It does get a little shrill in here sometimes and the same old insults are hurled by both sides - been guilty of it myself. It would be very nice if we could operate on the premise that the other side has legitimate reasons for their beliefs and respect those reasons. I think it is the height of arrogance to try to change someone's belief, but OK to point out a factual error. So, let's agree to stop the sarcasm and stick to explaining why we stand where we do. 

Woman,

"Oh man, thanks for the laugh today.  I mean seriously ... "

Can you be more specific ... I'm serious.

--virgil

"As Representative Barney Frank demanded of one constituent who likened the bill to Nazism, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?"

 A fine response from a public servant.

Pike,

Thank you for being a voice of reason!!!  It does get "shrill" in here many times, with each side accusing the other of various things from "You don't want insurance reform?  You hate your neighbor and love the rich!" to "You only say it's okay because Obama told you to!" 

It disappoints me to see that we've lost the ability to even have rational discussions anymore.  It seems so many times as soon as someone knows you are a conservative (or a liberal), they make assumptions and SOME here on this site are readily willing to dismiss you because of your political standings.  A person may know that I am a conservative, but that does not mean that they know me.  They ASSUME a lot about me, but it makes me sad that so many times instead of asking, "Why do you feel that way," or "What have you read that makes you believe that," allowing for civil discourse that can actual result in something beneficial (trade of ideas or better understanding of each other) it automatically seems to jump into a political hate fest.

Virgil,
 

This made me laugh because of the stereotypes this woman put on conservatives without providing any evidence whatsoever behind her theories.  Generalizations do NO person any favors in any argument.  And when it's a Democrat writing about these meetings, it's the same THEORY over and over again, along with the same insults.  They must have some generic script to write from.

What does make me sad is the fact that people want to make generalizations instead of addressing the real problem.

When she states that listening to these people is like (dechiphering pig latin), she immediately takes away from the validity that many of these people actually ARE scared.  Why is that wrong?  Because this person (who is obviously a Democrat, and I feel wouldn't be writing this if it was in regards to Democrats acting this way) believes her political beliefs shouldn't be questioned?  If a person is scared about their health care, don't they have the right to be worried about it?  If they are so miseducated, why rush to insults instead of trying to communicate differences and help people understand?

That's like Maxine Walters calling anyone who disagreed with the health care plan "neanderthals."

What's wrong with stopping the insults and trying to have an honest conversation, at least with each other?

Posting stuff like this just reaffirms the attitude of, "If you are a Democrat, you are smart, if you are a Conservative, you are stupid."  And that attitude, or the reverse, doesn't bring anything positive to the table in discussions about any political issues.

Nancy,

EXACTLY.

wndrwoman27:

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Next time I see a news shot of screaming people disrupting a town hall meeting, I'll make it a point to record it so I can pause and count all the black and brown faces.

Good point about not asking WHY someone feels the way they do.  A freind told me that a friend of HIS told him that she hated Bush.  He asked her why.  She just kept saying she hated him.  When he finally asked her to name one single thing that made her hate Bush she replied "Because he's a Republican."  I'm sorry, but that's not a reason (if there is one) to hate anyone.

Wndrwoman27 is right.  Instead of ridiculing people with whom you disagree, why not ask them "why."

Please note I do not exempt myself, I believe most of us here have been guilty of the above.

Nor did it occur to me that all those screaming gray-haired white people have little or no access to health care and were happy with the way things are and don't want any changes. Thank god for wndrwoman27's insight to show me the light.