THE RETURN OF THE KNOW-NOTHINGS
The Know-Nothings were an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish secret society that evolved into a political party that had its moment in the sun in the 1850's and then faded into obscurity as slavery became Issue Number One for the American people.
They got the nickname of know-nothings because after they had achieved a degree of respectability (to the extent that being a political party confers that trait) they tried to conceal their ideological roots by claiming to know nothing about anti-immigrant sentiment.
It kind of reminds me of politicians who can't bring themselves to say that there are no death panels or that President Obama is a citizen. Instead, they will say "Well, I don't know anything about that."
But the real know-nothings are those jackasses who get up and claim that single-payer plans or a public option will bring the American health care system to its knees. My favorite is the guy who showed up at a town hall and urged his Congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare." For some reason, these are the people who are setting the terms and the tone of the health care reform debate.
These are the same people who, if you had asked them a year ago to talk about health care, the entire conversation would have been spent bitching about how the insurance company wouldn't approve this or wouldn't pay for that. Now they are willing to fight to the death to keep those very same insurance companies from facing any kind of competition, lest they perish from the Earth.
I can remember the day when conservatives believed that competition was a good thing. Now I guess if you asked them, they would answer "I don't know nothing about that."
August 20, 2009
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Know Nothings
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