![]() ![]() |
![]() |
| |
|
How Did a 12-Year-Old Become No. 1 Enemy of Conservatives?Posted on Oct 11, 2007By E.J. Dionne WASHINGTON—Conservatives claim to be in favor of stable families, small businesses, hard work, private schools, investment and homeownership. So why in the world are so many on the right attacking the family of Graeme Frost? Graeme is the 12-year-old from Baltimore who delivered the Democrats’ reply to a radio address by President Bush in September. The seventh-grader pleaded—in vain, it turned out—that the president not veto Congress’ $35-billion expansion of the children’s health care program known as SCHIP. A car crash in December 2004 left two of Halsey and Bonnie Frost’s children comatose, Graeme with a brain stem injury and Gemma, his sister, with a cranial fracture. The kids were treated, thanks to SCHIP. The Frosts spoke out so the public would know that real people lie behind the acronym. Their reward was to be trashed on right-wing blogs and talk radio as if they were multimillionaires ripping off the system. The assault on the Frosts apparently began on the Free Republic Web site and quickly spread to National Review Online, Power Line and Michelle Malkin’s blog, as well as Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. And of what were the Frosts guilty? Well, they own their own home, which they bought for $55,000 in 1990 and is now worth about $260,000; they invested in a commercial property, valued at $160,000; Halsey Frost, a self-employed woodworker, once owned a small business that was dissolved in 1999; and Graeme attends a private school on scholarship. I rely here on facts reported this week in The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times, both of which set straight the more outlandish claims made by the Frosts’ attackers. The right is unapologetic. “The Democrats chose to outsource their airtime to a seventh-grader,” wrote National Review’s Mark Steyn. “If a political party is desperate enough to send a boy to do a man’s job, then the boy is fair game.” OK, the Democrats are “fair game,” but a 12-year-old? No wonder nobody talks about compassionate conservatism anymore. As a general rule, I am a fan of the blogosphere. It has broadened the public debate and brought new people into politics. And nasty stuff is by no means limited to the right-wing blogs. Left-of-center blogs whose political views I largely share have published offensive stuff, too. Shaun Mullen, who blogs at The Moderate Voice—yes, there are moderate blogs—is right to generalize when he says that the targeting of the Frost family reveals “the vicious underbelly of the blogosphere.” So rather than just condemn the right-wingers as meanies, let’s take their claims seriously. Doing so makes clear that they are engaged in a truly perverse and incoherent form of class warfare. The left is accused of all manner of sins related to covetousness and envy whenever it raises questions about who benefits from President Bush’s tax cuts and mentions the yachts such folks might buy or the mansions they might own. But here is a family with modest possessions doing everything conservatives tell people they should do, and the right trashes them for getting help to buy health insurance for their children. Most conservatives favor government-supported vouchers that would help Graeme attend his private school, but here they turn around and criticize him for ... attending a private school. Federal money for private schools but not for health insurance? What’s the logic here? Conservatives endlessly praise risk-taking by entrepreneurs and would give big tax cuts to those who are most successful. But if a small-business person is struggling, he shouldn’t even think about applying for SCHIP. Conservatives who want to repeal the estate tax on large fortunes have cited stories—most of them never check out—about farmers having to sell their farms to pay inheritance taxes. But the implication of these attacks on the Frosts is that they are expected to sell their investment property to pay for health care. Why? Oh, yes, and conservatives tell us how much they love homeownership, and then assail the Frosts for having the nerve to own a home. I suppose they should have to sell that, too. The real issue here is whether uninsured families with earnings similar to the Frosts’ need government help to buy health coverage. With the average family policy in employer-provided plans now costing more than $12,000 annually—the price is usually higher for families trying to buy it on their own—the answer is plainly yes. All the conservative attacks on a boy from Baltimore who dared to speak out will not make this issue go away. E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is postchat(at)aol.com. © 2007, Washington Post Writers Group Previous item: Thompson Needs More Rehearsal Next item: Outsourcing Torture Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
Comment Pages:
1
»
By Jim Goodson, October 15, 2007 at 7:04 am # The Dumb Dems and Repub. While taxing the only commodity the America small farmer can survive on. When a two-percent tarif on Chinese Imports, like the deadly toys and contaminated food,would provide every American better health-care.
By Lily Maskew, October 14, 2007 at 6:09 pm # That particular 12 year old child had the audacity to represent the Democrats, which we all know is a crime. Compassionate Conservatives are outmodeded since 9/11. They can, and will, villify women and children first. They certainly don’t want anyone truly deserving to make any progress. Conservatives are determined to undermine Democrats at all costs. If that means throwing a child to the wolves - that’s exactly what they will do.
By 'fredo, October 14, 2007 at 10:51 am # Cyrena,
By Together we stand..., October 14, 2007 at 5:53 am # What we’re seeing, and not just with this issue, are the final strategic manipulations of those who are in a position to more clearly see the logical progression of obvious trends. Human population rising geometrically worldwide, resources being depleted at a rate proportional to the rising population, skyrocketing rates of cancers and diseases caused by the world’s chemo-industrial paradigm, climate change that’s having measurable effects on worldwide food production, increasing probability of pandemics (of increasing virulence as well), clean fresh water growing more and more scarce, and many other things are all coming together to indicate serious, historically unprecedented trouble in the very near future. “Speaking truth to power” is just a waste of time, because power already knows some truth, otherwise it would not be in power. Look at the troubling trends with the thought in mind that those making the decisions are arranging themselves (and by “themselves” I mean “not you") to be in the most advantageous position when the inevitable chaos erupts, and it all starts to make more sense. We’re going to be left to fend for ourselves in the Superdome, and the National Guard will not be showing up to save the day. Blackwater mercenaries, however, will be there to make sure you don’t stray too far from the refugee camps. As solid and as firmly anchored as civilization seems to be, it’s really hanging by many threads, but only one has to snap for the domino effect to begin. Concrete, steel, corporations, and oil are not civilization; human beings are, so just because our shining cities seem powerful, massive, and unstoppable does not mean that humans can continue to live in them much longer the way we do now. Healthcare, being one small variable in this mix, must be denied as much as possible so our expectations are lowered to what the coming reality will dictate. I find it mildly amusing that the shills and tools of those pushing inhumane agendas will themselves never enjoy the “rewards” of their treason against humanity. All those sheeple with the “W” stickers on their gas-guzzlers and the rednecks who slandered a woman who just wanted to know why her son got killed on someone else’s business trip (Cindy Sheehan) are going to be rotting in the same “Superdome” as the rest of us, abandoned by those they chose to serve in a beautiful but agonizing display of cosmic irony.
By Conservative Yankee, October 14, 2007 at 4:34 am # 106887 by Trixie on 10/13 at 6:03 pm “With all due respect, you seem to have missed the point.” Oh, Sorry, There was a point? I’ll go back and re-read.................................................... ........................................ No one has shot Bush, so liberals are more compassionate than conservatives? That’s not a point, that is idiotic reasoning. There are many dead despots killed by their own followers. There are many live benevolent leaders who have not been assassinated!
By T.R., October 13, 2007 at 7:01 pm # In response to #106737 by cyrena on 10/12 I am not being Naive, I have worked in the Who is being Naive? There is no Magic supply of I am not trying to defend the insurance companies, While I agree there can be way better coverage But you can see what I am saying here. $250.000.00 If you cannot see there are MANY factors involved here, and that the Medical Industry IS BIG BUSINESS. then who is being Naive? I lived many places in many not so high paying jobs. Another equation I spoke of before.. The billing These points get away from, but do explain why
By footfree, October 13, 2007 at 6:51 pm # I had just finished reading the final Harry Potter book when I read a post at TPM about Charles Krauthammer’s thoughts on Hillary Clinton. For a minute couldn’t figure out if I was still reading the book or what. In one paragraph in particular the evil within Krauthammer and his “ilk” (Death Eaters?)that is usually hidden rose to the surface. From TPM Horses Mouth: He also writes with perfect sincerity that she’s to be admired because of her obvious (he claims) willingness to torture, concluding: “I (and others of my ideological ilk) could live with her.” - Greg Sargent
By Trixie, October 13, 2007 at 6:03 pm # #106756 by Conservative Yankee on 10/13 at 4:29 am With all due respect, you seem to have missed the point.
By Trixie, October 13, 2007 at 9:32 am # #106746 by Mark on 10/13 at 1:51 am I once met my doctor at a cocktail party for Tom Eagleton. Surprised to see him there, I said, “I didn’t know you’re a Democrat.” “I’m not,” he replied. “I’m an Opportunist.” What we seem to have in Washington in not Republicans and Democrats, but one party of Opportunists.
By Conservative Yankee, October 13, 2007 at 4:29 am # 106719 by trixie on 10/12 at 9:31 pm “The most telling evidence for the fact that Liberals are more humane and compassionate than Conservatives is that John Kennedy is dead and George Bush is still alive.” Ahh the way our “HISTORY” revises reality. Today John Kennedy would be a “conservative” his brother Robert was the true liberal. Bay of Pigs, Cuban missile crisis, Troops to Vietnam (on Eisenhower’s advice) Kennedy TALKED a good game, but was actually ineffective in getting the job done. He well may have been a one-term-president had he run in 1964. It took LBJ that hardened political student of Sam Rayburn to get the “Kennedy promise” of civil rights passed. Without his assassination, JFK would have been a footnote.
By David, October 13, 2007 at 4:01 am # Not familiar with this 12 year old the previous posters are talking about but I thought the SCHIP was opposed partially due to cost and partially due to the riders on to the bill like a tax on private health insurance plans.
By Mark, October 13, 2007 at 1:51 am # Come on. Using a seven year old is nothing but underhanded and manipulative. If you don’t think it is you are extraordinarily biased. But that is the way the political system works. Neither party truly has anything truly resembling morals. They pretend to have them for what it can get them. Politicians on both sides are worthless.
By trixie, October 12, 2007 at 9:31 pm # The most telling evidence for the fact that Liberals are more humane and compassionate than Conservatives is that John Kennedy is dead and George Bush is still alive.
By T.R., October 12, 2007 at 7:47 pm # C’mon, just another gimmick by a stupid Democratic What next, a chicken in every pot, ADVERTISED Give me a break, about the real issue here? The Problem is that the Medical Field has become But back to the question, In my opinion, it really
By rob, October 12, 2007 at 7:06 pm # The rationale for allowing school vouchers is this: School vouchers would be cheaper for the government than for the student to attend public schools. In addition, it would provide students with choice. Choice allows competition and would have the end result of inceasing the quality of our schools. I am for both school vouchers, and I am also for some form of federal safety net for those without healthcare ... with some reservations.
By DennisD, October 12, 2007 at 5:27 pm # “How Did a 12-Year-Old Become No. 1 Enemy of Conservatives”? Hell EJ, that’s an easy one - he was available.
By thomas billis, October 12, 2007 at 4:13 pm # I have read some of the comments and I agree that using a child is theatrics.The question is the response.A normal response is “using children to discuss adult decisions is reprehensible and we condemn the democrats for doing so."To attack a particular kid to put his address on the internet to harass a particular kid is what is off base.Bottom line is the attack should be on the adults who did it not on the kid.As to the kids of elected officials if they write books and or are used in the election then they are fair game.
By gex, October 12, 2007 at 2:08 pm # So juxtapose the Frosts with the guy who was on trial for feeding the homeless in FL, and you will see the compassionate conservative mindset. 1. The Frosts should have to sell everything before they even think about getting help.
By Ohmaar, October 12, 2007 at 12:42 pm # I just think the Democratic strategy was pathetic. I guess nobody stopped to think about the fact that the EXISTING program did just fine covering Graeme Frost and his sister, without the Democrats proposed enhancements; or that program that so benefited the Frosts was a REPUBLICAN plan; or that Bush has already committed to expanding the plan by FOUR BILLION DOLLARS. I make much less money per year than the Frosts, I don’t have enough money to buy my own home, and certainly not enough to invest in commercial real estate, but I don’t have any problem paying for health insurance for my wife (who does not work) and my three kids. But I DO have a problem if the Democrats think the government should be able to take the money I earn so they can help the Frosts (and the millions of others like them who make more money than I do) insure their kids.
By JimM72, October 12, 2007 at 12:25 pm # It’d be most refreshing to have some research done on who has really benefited from the Bush tax cuts. Would the msm touch this?
By MindlessRabble, October 12, 2007 at 10:25 am # And a boy cried out “The emperor has no cloths”
By lawlessone, October 12, 2007 at 9:19 am # Would someone please explain why anyone, particularly anyone with cognitive abilities intact, listens to anything said by any Republican. They seem almost the dictionary definition of pathological liars. Even if some actually believe the nonsense that spouts from their mouths, how many years must they be repeatedly proven dead wrong on damn near everything they say before they start to lack credibility? A broken clock is right more often than Republicans. [more irreverence at resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com] |
COMMENT TOOLS:
Hide comments
Show comments
Comment on this article