Jerry Moore: Green Party hopefuls must change their insulting tone
In an online column at My Suburban Life, writer Jerry Moore slams Illinois Greens Matt Reichel and Rich Whitney for referring to opponents of President Obama’s health care plan as “tea baggers”. Moore posits that “tea baggers” is a derogatory term.
Both men dismissed some opponents of the Obama administration’s plan to reform health care as “tea-baggers” who represent a minority of the population. This term has been used derisively to describe critics of President Obama who’ve held “tea parties” in opposing additional tax hikes.It’s disturbing that two political candidates would use derogatory language in talking about potential constituents.
Moore does not go into the fact that Reichel and Whitney also oppose the Obama plan, preferring a “Medicare for all” approach as adopted by the Green Party’s annual national meeting. Instead he avoids the substantive discussions. Moore writes, for example,
There are many misconceptions about what has been proposed, and these need to be clarified.
, but then does not discuss what the misconceptions are, nor does he clarify anything from the forum.
There are several comments at the website, including comments from Reichel himself and the column’s author. In the comments Reichel writes
Jerry -
I was embarrassingly unaware of the sexual innuendo behind ‘tea bagger’ and apologize for any offense anyone may have taken as a result of me using this term. I only used it because it has been popularly tossed around as a means of identifying those who have been savagely disrupting this nation’s potential march towards joining the community of civilized nations (ie those with high quality systems of universal health care).
Moore however, continued to refuse to discuss substance, instead saying that those who disagreed could submit a letter to the editor. Based solely on comments by Reichel it would appear that Moore is an active Libertarian.
Screw them tea-baggers. Lighten up, Mr. Moore.