Vote Democrat Or Die (Of Disease)
So there's these parodies of those Mac vs. PC ads, pitting Democrat vs. Republican. This one shows the Republican "playing doctor," and a conversation ensues:
Let's ignore the fact that there are two actual doctors in the U.S. Senate, and they are both Republicans, and focus on the fact that this spoof is actually claiming that if -- and only if -- Democrats control Congress, we will cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes.
And I am not reading too much into it. The guy who posted the video (who apparently participated in its creation) wrote: "The Federal government is the biggest funder of medical research in the US (if not the world.) If the Republican controlled Congress will allow the medical community to do their jobs, these deseases WILL be cured in our lifetime. Just do a little reading on the subject, listening not to political people, but to scientists and physicians."
So, he backed off his claim that Democrats have to control Congress. But he reiterated the false claim that we would necessarily solve these diseases in our lifetime, and added a new false claim to base the other false claim on: that the Congress is not "allow[ing] the medical community to do their jobs."
In fact, the Congress has not backed off from funding medical research, and has actually increased it under Bush (including in the area of embryonic stem cell research). Far from the government disallowing the medical community to do its job, it is actively funding them more than ever before in our nation's history. And even if the government were not funding them at all, that is still not disallowing them from doing their job, it's simply not providing aid for doing their job.
And, of course, there's the additional fact that many diseases are cured without the U.S. government's help (most of them that have been cured), and many that the U.S. has dumped a lot of money into have no forseeable prospect of a cure (such as cancer and AIDS).
But hey. None of that sounds as good as "vote Democrat or die (of disease)."
D: Have you ever cured anything? Like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or diabetes?
R: No. No one's cured those things.
D: Wouldn't it be really great if someone could? Wouldn't that make the world a better place?
R: Yeah, that would be awesome, but how could that happen?
D: Actually, there's only one thing standing in the way.
[Republican sheepishly hands stethoscope to Democrat.]
Let's ignore the fact that there are two actual doctors in the U.S. Senate, and they are both Republicans, and focus on the fact that this spoof is actually claiming that if -- and only if -- Democrats control Congress, we will cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes.
And I am not reading too much into it. The guy who posted the video (who apparently participated in its creation) wrote: "The Federal government is the biggest funder of medical research in the US (if not the world.) If the Republican controlled Congress will allow the medical community to do their jobs, these deseases WILL be cured in our lifetime. Just do a little reading on the subject, listening not to political people, but to scientists and physicians."
So, he backed off his claim that Democrats have to control Congress. But he reiterated the false claim that we would necessarily solve these diseases in our lifetime, and added a new false claim to base the other false claim on: that the Congress is not "allow[ing] the medical community to do their jobs."
In fact, the Congress has not backed off from funding medical research, and has actually increased it under Bush (including in the area of embryonic stem cell research). Far from the government disallowing the medical community to do its job, it is actively funding them more than ever before in our nation's history. And even if the government were not funding them at all, that is still not disallowing them from doing their job, it's simply not providing aid for doing their job.
And, of course, there's the additional fact that many diseases are cured without the U.S. government's help (most of them that have been cured), and many that the U.S. has dumped a lot of money into have no forseeable prospect of a cure (such as cancer and AIDS).
But hey. None of that sounds as good as "vote Democrat or die (of disease)."
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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