Ok for left to organize (bottom-up approach), not for right (unpatriotic, disruptive mob).

Politico reports this morning that the White House is launching a new web site dedicated to setting the record straight on Democrats’ health care proposals. But, the site doesn’t stop there, it also links to social networking sites and provides talking points and material to be distributed via these sites, email, or whatever your choice medium may be to help spread the White House’s message. A senior administration official is quoted as crediting this ‘bottom-up approach’ for getting his man into the White House. And, they hope it works for ushering in the health care transformations they support as well.

So, organizing on the left is a bottom-up approach. And, there is absolutely nothing wrong with encouraging citizens to become engaged and politically active on issues. Right? Wooops – there lies the rub. Apparently, the White House, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer are not equal opportunity encouragers of engagement. As their op-ed in today’s USA makes clear – if you are against health care, if you are trying to engage with your representative and happen to be on the other side of the aisle on this issue, if you have tried to make your way through the bill and decipher what it will really mean for our future — you are an unpatriotic, member of the dissenting mob and should be shut-up. Pelosi and Hoyer say no less in their shocking, speech-suppressing, un-American piece today.

If Pelosi thinks that she stands for what it means to be American, as the Speaker of the House pointing fingers at concerned Americans who are doing exactly what this country’s founders hoped Americans would do – get involved, become engaged, hold government accountable – then she has no understanding at all of what it means to be American.

Tags: health care debate, health care reform