I’ve been using FB and LJ as a place to blow off steam or to collect thoughts between writing jags. I was all set to post that I’d broken into the 15k mark, but then I poked into FB and found More Outrageous Extreme Right Wing Hatred _ DCCC…

Go ahead. Click the link. Even you conservative Republican types, because this is your party putting out this crap.

From the page: “Among the leaders that addressed the crowd were: Republican Leader John Boehner, Republican Whip Eric Cantor, Republican Conference Chair Mike Pence, and Republican Representative Michele Bachmann.”

Be warned. It’s incendiary, all right. And yeah, it’s on the DCCC web site, so you guys wearing the red banners might have an issue with reading what’s there, but I still think you need to go there. This is what the ultra conservatives in YOUR party think is okay to put out there in the name of defense of MY country. Considering my heritage, I find the photo and the whole concept mortifying and hideous, but not for the reasons they want me to.

I’m trying really hard to practice tolerance of dissenting points of view. It’s hard. Sometimes I just have to blow past the rhetoric and skip through the links because I’d rather stay friends than argue politics with folks who aren’t moved by my brand of reason.

So here’s a different request: If you lean in the direction above, why don’t you have a chat with these folks? Do it for my sake or for the sakes of my friends who are single moms or simply uninsurable.

Last time I had to get insurance for myself, I wasn’t married, hadn’t had two c-sections or been diagnosed with an annoying (but persistent) coughing problem. I had not had back surgery for a ruptured disk, had never taken an antidepressant in my life. I can’t say any of that now. Back then I had a near run-in with the folks at BCBS about pre-existing conditions. It’s been 10 years or more since a company I worked for offered me a health insurance plan of any stripe. Until now I’ve been covered by my soon-to-be-ex-husband’s plan.

The COBRA clock starts ticking as soon as I sign the paperwork. There will come a time sometime in the next 36+ months when I will have to worry about this, unless (by some miracle) I am hired by a company that provides health insurance. By then I will be on the plus side of 49. Based on my past employability rate, I have every reason to worry. Without insurance, I run the risk of losing my house and everything in it to a single medical emergency. I carry a disability policy but it has a low cap and cannot be increased because…you guessed it…pre-existing conditions.

The arguments presented by the dissenters range from merely annoying to actively insane. It’s not helping your cause one bit. Hate is still hate.

Take a good look at the photo. What would Ben Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson have to say about this crap?

Stop this madness before we lose everything we stand for in this country! Last I checked, that would be “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Life.

First on the list.