Web Posted: 08/16/2009 12:00 CDT
Jonathan Gurwitz - Jonathan Gurwitz

Dissent OK, unless it's against Obama's plans

Remember when dissent was considered to be the highest form of patriotism?

That would have been during the era that began after George W. Bush's inauguration.

It was the summer of 2002, in fact, when leftist historian Howard Zinn — not Thomas Jefferson, to whom the saying is frequently misattributed — popularized the dissent-equals-patriotism formulation in a magazine interview.

That era ended on Jan. 20, 2009, the day of Barack Obama's inauguration.

Today, if you merely disagree — dissent is too strong a word — with the policies being formulated by the Obama White House and the unchecked Democratic majorities in Congress, you could be some sort of mindless Nazi.

[b]That's what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to insinuate when she referred to Obamacare protestors as “AstroTurfâ€