Rick Perlstein has a valuable op-ed stating that the nuttiness on display at the town halls- and the lies about death panels and the like- is nothing new on the right:
The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America's flora. Only now, it's being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people who want living wills -- the one hysterics turned into the "death panel" canard -- is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of "complaints over the provision."Posted by Stephen Silver at August 17, 2009 09:47 PMGood thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.