ACORN: A teach-able moment

Acorn: a Teach-able moment

I was wrong, you were right. I want so much to modify this statement, but I shouldn’t. That’s what THEY do. The thing I want us to learn from this moment is that it’s O.K. to be proven wrong about something. Evidence is all I need to change my mind.

The evidence against ACORN, before these events came to light, was flimsy, circumstantial. Submitting a false voter registration is not the same as voter fraud. “Prosecutors believe ACORN workers were not scheming to permit illegal voting, but rather trying to get paid for work they didn't do.” (reference) It’s just evidence that sometimes people are lazy and don’t want to actually try to get voters to register, so they sit down somewhere and fill out the forms themselves. Since no one was actually going to vote, it doesn’t actually do anything. It may have inflated voter rolls, but not actual votes.

This new event, on the other hand, is horrible. And not just because these people believed some guy who looks like a Halloween version of a pimp, but because this is actual abuse, and is actually illegal. And the reason I know that, is evidence. This isn’t unsubstantiated rumors. This isn’t hearsay. This isn’t suspicion, this is evidence.

This is what’s lacking from every other criticism of Obama and Democrats in general. There are actual parts of the Health Care bill that deserve criticism. And the new Baucus plan is getting plenty of that. We can debate whether having everyone covered would reduce costs, since Hospitals would be paid for almost every procedure that is done. Costs would be reduced because records would be online, and centralized. We can argue those points, but no one is.

Evidence, facts, support of your position: that’s all we liberals are asking you to give us to convince us that you’re right or that we’re wrong. Or at least to get us to consider your side, if not agree with you. So the thing we can learn from ACORN, is that if you want to convince me, you better bring evidence.