This is absolutely amazing. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee out and out LIES to their constituents. They have this HealthCare Fact Check site that is appalling beyond belief.
Their second "myth-buster" goes like this:
MYTH: Grassroots Protestors are Disrupting Town Halls
House Republican Leader John Boehner's Office: "Back home for the August recess, rank-and-file Democratic Members of the House are facing a backlash from their constituents."
FACT: Lobbyist-Run Groups Are Orchestrating Extremist Mobs
Republicans and well-funded special interest groups are sending far-right extremists to local town halls to stop any meaningful discussion of Health Insurance Reform. Some of these mob scenes have turned especially ugly -- including the hanging of Members of Congress is effigy and use of Nazi SS symbols.
Instead of sources for this "facts" they offer "more reading" at a DCCC blog and these two bits of biased opinion: Anti-Reform Group Takes Credit For Helping Gin Up Town Hall Rallies, The Plum Line; and The danger in the right's anger, Politico.
All "Paid for by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee"
• 430 S Capitol Street, S.E. Washington, D.C. 20003 • (202) 863-1500
And you just wouldn't believe what they say about the House health care bill. They promise that no one will be denied coverage or charged more just because they have a pre-existing condition and of course, "If you like your doctor," your hospital or your insurance plan, you can keep it.
According to the DCCC, not only will the House bill "lower health care costs for all Americans," it will end those annoying co-pays and deductibles. It actually says this! And it promises that the so-called "public option" will "prevent" people having to go through bankruptcy due to medical expenses.
In another "myth-buster" the DCCC says that House Republicans "have refused to release a [counter-proposal] plan to the public." In fact, Republicans introduced "The Patients' Choice Act" back in May. In June, even the state-run media at CBS admitted the House GOP had released a proposal "to increase affordability, accessibility and availability." And in July, Rep. Eric Cantor of VA explained the core principles of the Republican plan... in writing... in the Richmond Times Dispatch.
And the DCCC has the nerve, the chutzpah, the AUDACITY, to continue to say that Republicans "refused to release" a plan. Is that not shocking?
On the one hand, the DCCC tries to scare people about the opposition being like Nazis, but on the other hand, the DCCC is really and truly ACTING like Nazis, and I don't say that lightly. This is much, much worse than simply "Chicago-style politics." These people unabashedly lie, repeat their lies as a "fact check," AND incite their constituents against regular everyday Americans who happen to have different thoughts on the subject, so that the little Demorat sheeple will be AFRAID to believe anything but what they are fed by their party officials (and young twits new to power).
If your heart is not chilled by the DCCC "Fact Check," then maybe you should read more Goebbels.
* * * * *
Randall Bytwerk - who teaches about Nazi propaganda at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan - recommends the work of Jacques Ellul, especially the book, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes.
Ellul views propaganda as part of a larger system. His definition is:
Propaganda is a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring about the active or passive participation in its actions of a mass of individuals, psychologically unified through psychological manipulation and incorporated in an organization. (p. 61)
However, he insists that propaganda is not something done by evil propagandists to ignorant citizens:
... in order for propaganda to be so far-ranging, it must correspond to a need. The State has that need: Propaganda is obviously a necessary instrument for the State and the authorities. But while this fact may dispel the concept of the propagandist simply as an evil-doer, it still leaves the idea of propaganda as an active power vs. passive masses. And we insist that this idea, too, must be dispelled: For propaganda to succeed, it must correspond to a need for propaganda on the individual's part. One can lead a horse to water but cannot make him drink; one cannot reach through propaganda those who do not need what it offers.
The propagandee is by no means just an innocent victim. He provides the psychological action of propaganda, and not merely leads himself to it, but even derives satisfaction from it. Without this previous, implicit consent, without this need for propaganda experienced by practically every citizen of the technological age, propaganda could not spread.... (p. 121)