MSNBC host equates ‘Obamacare’ with N-word

Alright so this is originally from MSNBC (left wing) and picked up by the Daily Caller (right wing.) Since it seems a valid point I thought to ask ATS what they think about it.

Initially it seemed like a bit of left-right rhetoric to me but it struck some cord where I had to ask myself "Is this true?" 75% of me wants to say this is just left-winger ranting and propaganda. The other 25% of me will admit that when I say "obamacare" it's almost like cursing. Does that make it racist though?

Initially coming from MSNBC I assumed leftist spin but the question stands. Please try to look beyond any personal feelings about the current healthcare issues.

MSNBC host equates ‘Obamacare’ with N-word

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry suggested the term “Obamacare” and the N-word are interchangeable, claiming both were “conceived by a group of wealthy white men who needed to . . . render [a black man] inferior and unequal and diminish his accomplishments.”

“And so he (Obama) decided if you can’t beat them, you’ve got to join them. So he embraced the word and made it his own, sending his opposition a message they weren’t expecting: ‘If that’s what you want me to be, I’ll be that.’

No one knows for sure who first coined the term “Obamacare,” or if they were truly the “group of wealthy white men” Harris-Perry claims.

Say what?! Didn't she just claim wealthy white men conceived the word? Just for the record I think he embraced the word "obamacare" because it has his name in it and he thought it would be his wonderful legacy. Now he seems to be saying "I didn't build that!"

After reading the article again I have decided that for myself the word is not racist... but it is a curse word.

Racist... lol..... I love how they not only march to the tune being strung for them, they goose step in tight formation. It wasn't that long ago I saw stories carried across here about the White House wanting to rename and rebrand this whole disaster, and now we hear the name equated to racism for origin?

What about the President himself, at one point, saying if people wanted to label it that? He'd gladly take it. Of course, that was before it became a disaster of an EFFORT...not just what it's named.

Well, the great re-writers of all things which ACTUALLY happened need to check themselves just a wee bit on this one.

In the early 1990s, Hillary Clinton was tapped by her husband, Bill, then President of the United States, to create a plan to reform the healthcare payment system in the United States. Her proposal, dubbed both HillaryCare and ClintonCare, was not passed by the US Congress and never became law.

Fast forward to 2008, when Hillary Clinton was a possible presidential candidate, campaigning against Barack Obama for the Democratic party nomination. Both candidates hoped to reform healthcare. So to balance the title "HillaryCare", Clinton's campaign managers began calling Obama's plan, which differed from Clinton's, "ObamaCare."

Source

I don't personally recall Clintoncare being used much when Bill was in Office and Hillary was pushing this junk. I do recall Hillarycare though and I recall where it started being used early in the primaries, too.

MSNBC reports news, they can't rewrite history. It's offensive to see them keep trying this way. It's unbecoming of a place calling itself a news organization. All others notwithstanding, this is their baby.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Oh yeah, good old HillaryCare.

MSNBC may call that sexist you know. Unless she had gotten it implemented and it halfway worked.

Then it's a marvel of modern politics.

reply to post by Bassago


Holy Obamacare!

reply to post by Bassago

Didn't she just claim wealthy white men conceived the word.

Seeing how they were backing Hillary when the word came around I'm pretty sure they wasn't poor. What their race was who knows?

reply to post by Bassago
This is just rubbish and it's the same tactic the left has been using for the last 5 - 6 years. Anytime Obama is criticized you become a racist. I think this tactic is divisive and disgusting.

You know, when Obamacare was being written and then passed and when everyone on the left still believed it was sent from god, they too used the term "Obamacare". After the whole thing went in the crapper, it became the ACA and anyone who used the term Obamacare, which ties it to the person most responsible for it, the term became a pejorative used by racists. That hypocrisy pisses me off!

Obamacare is going to replace the terms Rube Goldberg and SNAFU. LOL

reply to post by Bassago

MSNBC is obviously the MSM cable news channel that leans the furthest to the left. That said, she didn't *exactly* say the N-word and Obamacare are interchangeable, did she? She was drawing comparisons to the way in which the President has embraced the term "Obamacare," which was used a derisive term by opponents, and the way that black people have embraced the racial epithet. It's not dissimilar to how Fred Doyle originally coined the term "Big Bang" as a pejorative.

I personally winced the first time I heard the President refer to the PPACA as "Obamacare." I assume that had Democrats predicted the way things would unfold with the healthcare.gov website and insurance cancellation letters, they would have stuck to calling it the ACA or PPACA.

Maybe they should have just called it RomneyCare

I guess this must mean a group of wealthy black men came up with the term Romneycare.

i said obamacar"A"

i meant no disrecpect

Planned Parenthood uses the term Obamacare...

PPwebsite

reply to post by theantediluvian

That said, she didn't *exactly* say the N-word and Obamacare are interchangeable, did she? She was drawing comparisons to the way in which the President has embraced the term "Obamacare," which was used a derisive term by opponents

To be fair she didn't exactly say that though she did quite plainly insinuate it. It was easy to see what she meant which is why it caused some reflection for myself.

I've been a pretty vocal critic of obamacare and Obama for a long time. It seemed fair to self evaluate on the issue, regardless of who asks the question or makes the statement.

Edit - The title is from the article and not mine FWIW.

reply to post by Bassago


OK. Let's look at the situation this way. These days, whites are not allowed to use the dreaded n-word (as it is known) because it has negative connotation toward a particular type of person. I accept that decision. However, lest we forget, it is a word commonly allowed among those that are subject to being called that word. That is OK too, if they condone self-belittlement (as we all do to some extent).

Having examined the classifications for how that word is used and not used, we can carry them over to the use of the word of Obamacare. If you are not a citizen of the US and not subject to the long arm of this imposed health program, you could call it by its correct name, the Affordable Health Care Act. --Of course, even that is proving to be a very inappropriate name for it.

Anyway, if you are a US citizen and subjected to it, and because it was ramrodded into being the law of the land by none other than the current Prez, then why not call it Obamacare as they all gleefully wanted when the big show first began? THEY and the media named it, and now that it is a big stinker, THEY want to call it being racist by some twisted logic. But, next, you can bet on it, we will see left-wing commentators start to call it "hate" inspired.

Aliensun

OK. Let's look at the situation this way. These days, whites are not allowed to use the dreaded n-word (as it is known) because it has negative connotation toward a particular type of person. I accept that decision.

I don't accept that decision.

Today, the N-word does not really mean a racist remark against blacks. Blacks call themselves the n-word in a sort of camaraderie. Alternately, white trash is frequently described as being a "white n-word". The two previous presidents fit that term very well ...... as does the current half white president.

reply to post by Bassago

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry suggested the term “Obamacare” and the N-word are interchangeable, claiming both were “conceived by a group of wealthy white men who needed to . . . render [a black man] inferior and unequal and diminish his accomplishments.”

that is so twisted.

reply to post by Bassago


Call it Obamacare, call it Affordable Care Act, call it a grilled-cheese sandwich, it is what it is.

Changing the name won't change the nature of the thing.

"A rose by any other name. . . "

Or to be a bit more crass. . . . . I can call a fart in a packed elevator the scent of a dozen red roses, won't do much to change the smell, however.

reply to post by Bassago


Maybe "Romneycare" would fit better, but Obama is happy to have his name attached to it imnho because, in the long run (the long run, not now, so please no jumpin'-on-me) it will be a proud legacy and Obama, Axelrod, and all of them know it. So does Romney, wherever he is these days.

Aleister
reply to post by Bassago

 

Maybe "Romneycare" would fit better, but Obama is happy to have his name attached to it imnho because, in the long run (the long run, not now, so please no jumpin'-on-me) it will be a proud legacy and Obama, Axelrod, and all of them know it. So does Romney, wherever he is these days.

edit on 9-12-2013 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

All things considered, that's being pretty optimistic now isn't it? That train wreck isn't going to ever be considered a good thing.

Fascism is necessary to support the illusion that leftism is not a laughable farce.

Controlling the language controls the message, isolating and targeting thought criminals is how dissent is eradicated.

Political correctness is the Newspeak Dictionary, looks like it must be updated once again, komrades.

reply to post by Bassago


She's one of the more despicable hate merchants on MSNBC, and that's saying something. Really, she's just one of the gargoyles they have on as guest moderators and analysts, ones that promote their own brands of backward thinking and twisted ideologies. I call them gargoyles because many of them are as physically repulsive as they are repulsive in personality. David Korn is another such creature as was Martin Bashir.
Hate and ugliness, misanthropy, racism, homophobia, misogyny, MSNBC is welcoming to any and all. And if they aren't haters, they're fawning sycophants without a shred of integrity or just hack mercenaries out to make a buck on the joke network of cable news.
Just take her statements as a white flag signaling she's lost the argument and can't offer anything more than a childish and dull witted response.