First James O’Keefe went after ACORN. Even though the video used to defund the organization was later determined to be a fraud, liberals buckled under the pressure. The Congressional vote, even under Democratic control, voted to ban ACORN from receiving federal funding. The right wing plan worked and ACORN went out of business across the country.
Earlier, Laila Rose had begun her “undercover investigations” of an even more popular brand: Planned Parenthood. These edited clips, along with false and misleading information about abortion rates for women of color are being used in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. The right-wing controlled House of Representatives wasted no time in voting to ban Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding as one of their first acts of 2011.
Now Mr. O’Keefe is back. This time, posing as a Muslim donor to National Public Radio (NPR) recording the director of fundraising making disparaging remarks about conservatives and the Tea Party. In this case, a fundraiser, not a reporter was forced to resign for making a biased statement. Shortly thereafter NPR’s chief executive also resigned. No doubt, NPR will be next on the budget chopping block. Oh, wait, it was already defunded by the House along with Planned Parenthood.
And for some reason, the general public has not noticed this organized effort to attack and dismantle popular and vital programs that benefit our communities. Shame on the media for not making these connections for us and shame on progressives for cowering in response. Lawmakers are eating it up as an opportunity to finally get rid of these things they hate so much.
Enough is enough.
How is it that one afternoon a perfectly competent employee can be doing good work and the next moment he or she is thrown into turmoil, and unemployment. Why are progressives so caught up in their liberal guilt that they cannot just admit to a mistake and move on without allowing for the destruction of a perfectly good organization?
Fortunately, Planned Parenthood is fighting back. If you haven’t seen the pink bus "Truth Tour", you really should take a look. They are following the lying anti-choice zealots around the country with their truth bus, debunking lies and spreading the word about Planned Parenthood’s important work.
I hope that NPR does not fall victim to these attacks and fights back too. It is time for progressives to release themselves from the liberal guilt that allows them to agree to the punishments of the right wing because of deceptions and mistakes. And it is time for us to say “hell no!” to our members of Congress if they dare defund these vital community programs.
