Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
Question authority. Speak truth to power.
These are considered great virtues when it's liberals who are doing it.
But rather than view as many as a million concerned citizens at Saturday's amazing protest in Washington as speaking truth to power and questioning authority, some are actually disparaging the historic event.
It must be racist. It has to be. It can't be real. This must be a reaction to the country's first black president.
When Barack Obama attracts a crowd, it's a throng. When citizens concerned about the direction of the country gather, something's wrong - with them.
Washington authorities were caught by surprise by the size of Saturday's 9-12 protest - and they're not alone: Congress, the White House and anyone who gets his information solely from "mainstream" media sources could not have seen this coming.
Nor was this massive rally merely about health care. This was a coming together of hundreds of thousands of Americans - who represent millions more - who are increasingly distressed about Washington's out-of-control spending and the growth of federal government power.
It's truly tragic how many on the left and in the media desperately want this to be about anything other than that. The latest Democratic talking points: The tea party rallies, and even Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst, are about racist whites who can't accept a black president.
That bellicose lie - that you're all a bunch of racists - is one of the most insulting slanders of Americans in years and years.
It's also a cynical diversion from attending to the problems facing this country.
We implore our liberal friends to stop slandering Americans, stop hiding behind the race of the president, and let's all take a look at the issues together. This problem is not black and white; it's about the financial solvency of America itself, and the extent of individual freedom we and our descendants will enjoy - or be stripped of.
If this is about race, it's about a race to save the country from financial ruin. We are already awash in nearly $12 trillion in accumulated debt, the yearly deficit (which is thrown on top of the $12 trillion in debt) is between $1 trillion and $2 trillion, and future promises to retirees in Social Security and Medicare approach $100 trillion.
Those things alone might be enough to sink America's ship - but the government is now considering creating a new health care coverage program that independent analysts say will add trillions more to the debt. And the administration's "cap and trade" tax on energy could further cripple an already reeling economy.
On a philosophical, yet practical, level this debate is also about morality. Is it moral, or constitutional, to use government to rob Peter to pay Paul? Is it moral to erode self-responsibility on both ends of the equation? And where else on Earth has that been successful?
This isn't about race. This is about our future.