The Other McCain

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Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’

Posted on | December 16, 2013 | 32 Comments

Becky Gerritson, leader of the Wetumpka (Alabama) Tea Party, made headlines in June when she testified to Congress about how her organization was treated by the Internal Revenue Service. Monday, in a speech to a meeting of the Alabama 60-Plus Senior Association in Montgomery, Gerritson compared the fight against ObamaCare to the Lord of the Rings saga, an analogy in which President Obama is Sauron. Here is the text of her speech:

Hello. I’m Becky Gerritson. I’ve been asked to explain how Obamacare will affect you all in five minutes. I think I can do it in less than one.
Remember Lord of the Rings?
Well, we are all happy hobbits. Washington, DC is Mordor. Barack Obama is Sauron. Kathleen Sebelius is Sarumon. The hideous, despicable army of evil orcs would be the IRS. And the Affordable Care Act is their plan to reorganize the Shire.
That metaphor works for several reasons. I love it because it highlights a certainty that many of us would prefer to ignore: a battle is coming.
As natives of the Shire, we don’t like conflict. We like to work hard. We like to take care of our families. We like our churches. We like our communities. When we see a neighbor struggle, we like to band together and bear each other up.
But outside forces think they know better. They’ve announced their new edict. Very soon, they will commence its enforcement. And now, we are being forced to make a choice: submit or fight.
And what does submission require?
Obamacare may begin with health care, but it’s much more than that — more than your individual policy, more than a government takeover of 1/6th of the American economy.
Try not to focus on the politics of the moment. Forget about your personal relationship with your family doctor. Forget about broken promises. Forget about the technical failures of healthcare.gov. The real nightmare arrives when Obamacare starts to function properly.
Complying with Obamacare means that your tax dollars will directly fund abortions as of January 1st, 2014. It means that religious institutions will have to violate their consciences if they want to keep their doors open.
If the government orders you to kill a baby would you do it? No? Then why would you agree to pay someone else to do it?
What is religious freedom if the government can force you to violate your religious convictions?
Maybe you’re not religious. And maybe you don’t care about abortion. Are you comfortable with the government redefining freedom whenever they change their mind about the “greater good?”
That’s the most troubling aspect of Obamacare. It’s not just an enormous government welfare program that asks younger Americans to pay for the decisions of an older generation. Obamacare presents a competing system of values that cannot co-exist with our local values.
I like to make my own decisions about my life and family. But if I’m forced to deal with a collective, I would rather trust the strangers in this room than federal bureaucrats. And that is exactly what Obamacare forbids: individual decision-making and communities expressing local values. With Obamacare, the moral decision-making occurs in Washington. We just follow their orders. As such, Obamacare is the keystone to a fundamental transformation of our culture.
If you think I’m being dramatic, I urge you to remember the name Ezekial Emanuel. He’s the chief architect of Obamacare. He’s also the author of the Complete Lives system. That system is his blueprint for how health care dollars should be allocated to benefit the most productive in a society. He says his program will serve the “greatest good.” Emanuel believes that too much money is spent on the elderly. He also believes that children born with serious disabilities and illnesses siphon off more than their share of collective dollars that could be better spent elsewhere. In short, the Complete Lives system would focus health care expenditures to aid the most productive in society (roughly those between 18 and 50) at the expense of the elderly and the infirm.
When it comes to sick kids and grandparents, sometimes difficult decisions must be made. I think those decisions should be made by families. Obamacare will leave the decision to a panel of bureaucrats.
I believe that Obamacare will be deeply destructive — both to American health care and to American culture — but Obamacare is just a vessel. It is not nearly as sinister and threatening as the idea behind it: social justice. Over the last five years, you’ve heard the term “social justice” uttered by President Obama and his czars and czarinas somewhere around 14 billion times. The president can’t complete a sneeze without mentioning it.
As a concept, social justice means that we have an obligation to those less fortunate than us. On the surface, there’s nothing especially new about that. Christians and Jews believe something similar. We know that the poor will always be with us, and it is always our duty to reach out and be charitable.
I urge you not to fall for this. Christianity calls individuals to be generous to the less fortunate. Christianity is concerned with each individual soul. Though social justice cloaks itself in similar language, it asserts that some debt exists between one citizen and another. This is an enormous difference. Recipients of charity are grateful. Those who believe that they have been denied justice are not.
If social justice exists, where are the courts? If a debt exists between citizens, how much is owed? And who owes it? If these questions can’t be answered, then social justice is a fraud, and those who propagate it are promoting violence between citizens.
Obamacare was sold under the banner of social justice. In nearly every speech, President Obama suggests that part of the population has taken more than its fair share. Conversely, he is telling part of the population that they have been robbed. This is a morality fairy tale spun by a man who doesn’t understand the free market or respect American traditions.
I know the Shire, and I know Shire folk. We’re generous and hospitable to those in need. We’re happy to support charitable causes, near and far. But submitting to outsiders is not generosity. It’s surrender. And I won’t play a part in it.
As I said at the beginning, a battle is coming. If you’re interested in joining the resistence, we need your help.

Category: Alabama, Health Care, Tea Party

Comments

32 Responses to “Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’”

  1. robcrawford2
    December 16th, 2013 @ 10:40 pm

    It’s a horrible shame Peter Jackson didn’t include “The Scouring of the Shire” in his movies.

  2. Rob John
    December 16th, 2013 @ 11:23 pm

    Becky is a true patriot. I only wish our so-called Representatives in Washington understood freedom half as well as she does, I wish they would work as hard as she does.

  3. Bob Belvedere
    December 16th, 2013 @ 11:33 pm

    Damn well put. We need more like her.

  4. Steve Skubinna
    December 16th, 2013 @ 11:43 pm

    Damn, I thought I was the only one who felt that way. Everyone else I know is butthurt that Tim Benzedrine and his hippy dippy common law wife was left out.

    But the Scouring of the Shire told, in stark terms, that the fight against evil is never done, and that one can never go back to the way things were before. Once you have grasped the sword, you can never put it completely away again. But not taking it up can mean the loss of everything you cherish.

    Some things are not merely worth fighting for. Some things, if you elect not to fight for them, will cost you everything you love and maybe your own soul.

    Obama and his drones think they hold the pink slip to my soul. And yours.

  5. Finrod Felagund
    December 16th, 2013 @ 11:53 pm

    Tim Benzedrino was in Bored of the Rings.

  6. Finrod Felagund
    December 16th, 2013 @ 11:55 pm

    “everything but Rules getting shorter and shorter”

  7. Steve Skubinna
    December 17th, 2013 @ 12:01 am

    Spoiler!

  8. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 17th, 2013 @ 12:30 am

    Ditto.

  9. disneyr
    December 17th, 2013 @ 12:36 am

    Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ – http://t.co/vvrViP0otR

  10. alanhenderson
    December 17th, 2013 @ 1:23 am

    And Harry Reid is the Witch King of Angmar. Which makes Pelosi one of the other Nazgul.

  11. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 17th, 2013 @ 1:55 am

    Unfortunately if you live in certain Democrat controlled cities…you live it.

  12. SmallBrotherNWY
    December 17th, 2013 @ 5:26 am

    RT @rsmccain: ‘OBAMA IS SAURON’ — Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ http://t.co/2RZmrBeqB4 cc @instapundit #tcot

  13. Dana
    December 17th, 2013 @ 6:45 am

    One Prez to rule them all,
    One Prez to find them.
    One Prez to bring them all
    and in the darkness, bind them.

  14. rsmccain
    December 17th, 2013 @ 7:28 am

    RT @disneyr: Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ – http://t.co/vvrViP0otR

  15. BeanfromPa
    December 17th, 2013 @ 7:47 am

    RT @rsmccain: ‘OBAMA IS SAURON’ — Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ http://t.co/2RZmrBeqB4 cc @instapundit #tcot

  16. gmardre
    December 17th, 2013 @ 8:31 am

    “Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’” http://t.co/4G5lvy1lu5

  17. TeaPartyBecky
    December 17th, 2013 @ 9:04 am

    “Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’” Here is my speech to 60 Plus Assoc.yesterday http://t.co/buGGY3l4E6

  18. richard mcenroe
    December 17th, 2013 @ 9:09 am

    Jay Carney IS Grima Wormtongue… or would that be Chris Matthews… or Ed Schulz… or John McCain…?

  19. wetumpkatea
    December 17th, 2013 @ 9:11 am

    Becky Gerritson’s speech to the 60 plus Montgomery Chapter kick off yesterday at the Embassy Suites! http://t.co/ETUpqnqzaj

  20. cityonahilltv
    December 17th, 2013 @ 9:19 am

    RT @TeaPartyBecky: “Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’” Here is my speech to 60 Plus Assoc.yesterday http:/…

  21. Eric Ashley
    December 17th, 2013 @ 10:11 am

    John McCain would be one of the Trolls that Gandalf curses with dawn.

    Who is the Balrog, and Shelob?

  22. LeatherPenguin
    December 17th, 2013 @ 11:05 am

    Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ http://t.co/MaEahrrVzg

  23. yateswalker
    December 17th, 2013 @ 1:08 pm

    Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ http://t.co/ADb6UuhcWZ

  24. rsmccain
    December 17th, 2013 @ 2:32 pm

    RT @LeatherPenguin: Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ http://t.co/MaEahrrVzg

  25. CFLancop
    December 17th, 2013 @ 2:33 pm

    RT @LeatherPenguin: Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ http://t.co/MaEahrrVzg

  26. President Obama’s popularity is shrinking… | Batshit Crazy News
    December 17th, 2013 @ 2:58 pm

    […]  Obama compared to Lord Sauron… (that is usually not a good […]

  27. therightmixx
    December 17th, 2013 @ 6:09 pm

    Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ http://t.co/YU4oDHSgNd

  28. Wombat_socho
    December 17th, 2013 @ 6:40 pm

    Oh, I think we have a very obvious candidate for Shelob, don’t you?

  29. McGehee
    December 17th, 2013 @ 7:24 pm

    The Balrog is immigration “reform,” I hope.

    “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!”

  30. Smom43kids
    December 17th, 2013 @ 10:28 pm

    A great analogy from @TeaPartyBecky http://t.co/EV2rVtNPrv

  31. ZION'S TRUMPET » Becky Gerritson, Alabama Tea Party Leader, Speaks Truth About Obamacare
    December 18th, 2013 @ 9:05 am

    […] Alabama Tea Party Leader Compares ObamaCare to ‘Lord of the Rings’ […]

  32. 60PlusAssoc
    December 21st, 2013 @ 2:26 pm

    RT @wetumpkatea: Becky Gerritson’s speech to the 60 plus Montgomery Chapter kick off yesterday at the Embassy Suites! http://t.co/ETUpqnqzaj