I have to confess, I'm pretty surprised, and not pleasantly.

Despite high hopes that we were moving away from the blue state/red state abyss, it isn't turning out that way.

Instead, Republicans across the country and the airwaves are in the throes of a moral indignation so powerful it's making them sputter almost incoherently lately. And a healthy percentage of our conservative brethren have chosen to take very specific  umbrage at Senate Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s recent characterization of the town hall protesters.

But quick, before you make up YOUR mind about whether or not you too are outraged, take a minute and attribute the following quotes:  

“These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.”

"The zealots in this country--and that's what they are, they're zealots--are Nazis. This is exactly what Nazis did. They disrupted rallies, they came in and shouted people down, they intimidated, they smeared, they did all of this..."

If you guessed Pelosi, you’d only be half right. While the first quote is taken from the op-ed she coauthored that ran in USA Today, the second is from a news broadcast aired on December 8, 2005, by none other than Bill O'Reilly. He was referring to anti war protesters and other vocal critics of the Bush administration.

Which just goes to prove that old chestnut—it all depends, of course, on whose ox is currently getting gored, doesn't it? 

But I think Pelosi is mostly on the money here. I just think she's painting the wrong set of people with the tarry brush of un-Americanism.

It is unAmerican to attempt to intimidate, through lies and deliberate campaigns of misinformation, the American people who should be having this discussion.

It is unAmerican to inject corporate interests into a discussion that should be about the welfare and well-being of close to 50 million uninsured (and countless other underinsured) Americans.

It's been pretty well documented that the driving force behind this campaign of misinformation (Obama will not kill your granny, there are no "Death Panels," and I'd bet my right arm that Sarah Palin got a big fat check from an insurance company in appreciation for her recent Tweet) are the very corporations whose profits will shrink should this bill pass, backed by their neocon lobbyists.

It is unAmerican in the extreme that what should be and could be a reasoned and reasonable exchange of ideas is instead being corrupted and manipulated by powerful parties with a vested interest in shutting down reason.

It absolutely infuriates me, as I've written before, that these "Interests" are targeting some of the most vulnerable in our country--i.e. the elderly. (Ironically, it is the elderly who have the least stake in the outcome here--most are already participating in "government-run health care," and most won't live long enough to bear the tax burden (if there is one) of the Obama plan.

But they're easy to scare, and because they ARE "good Americans," they're also easy to engage.

This whole mess is a picture-perfect example of what's gone horribly wrong with public discourse. It's Orwellian (and I don't throw that term around lightly).

And it's clearly purposeful: Newt Gingrich--a highly intelligent man--actually lent credence to the "Death Squad" notion on MTP last week, on the heels of Palin's absurd Tweet. Of course he knows it's nonsense, but he's toeing the party line and repeating the misinformation for political gain.

That is vile. And that's what's got so many of us on the other side of the political spectrum so angry. At this point, I’m so unbelievably frustrated that I’m honestly considering registering as a Republican, just to TRY to bring some sanity and reason back to the party. Someone has to and so far, I haven’t seen a single reasonable Republican step up.  

Maybe there aren’t any left?

What do you think--will I be welcomed into the "party of inclusion" with open arms? I'm not so sure. They've been pretty rough on little Megan McCain...