Reply #3: I meant it more like "two can play that game" (smoke & mirrors) [View All]

[MindLikeAParachute]

They're happy to twist issues like this back on us.

The problem is that we're fighting a group that loves smoke and mirrors. I'm just saying two can play that game.

WE KNOW that even if we kept Terri plugged back up the administration is not going to capitulate and fully fund and endorse SCR (Stem Cell Research).

WE EVEN that even if we did, it's probably be a LOONNNGGG time before we could regrow a cerebral cortext - much too late for Terri, and then she'd have to start over as a mental infant, assuming it all worked out perfectly from a medical sense.

So, in this case, it's not really about Terri - she's a symbol.

They're using her as a symbol of their support for life (and our apparent disregard for it, or at least we don't hold life as dear as the dear old GOP).

Today, Terri - tomorrow, someone else. But little by little they get their message across ("Oh, we are for life, those darn Democrats would just as soon unplug your grandma").

Although Terri may not be a classic example, she's "good enough" in a symbolic sense - she's in an irreversible degenerative state (irreversible by today's technology, meaning not SCR). She has our nation's attention. Only one political side is making hay of this, to promote their "pro-life" position.

Our side is taking the "keep your nose out of other people's business" position, but that needn't be the only position. We could also use the SCR position as in "if you truly want to prevent tragedies like this from happening again, then we need to support SCR".

Of course, the point is not to speak to the administration - they don't give a shit. The point is to speak to the public, and get our message across that we care, and we want to improve quality of life.

The GOP is not speaking to us in this argument - they're speaking to the people. And they're winning - not the legal battle necessarily, but the message battle.

We need to speak back. We can address it to the GOP, but we don't care if they ignore us (since we know they're not going to give a shit anyway). What we care about is that the people hear the message we're sending - which is that the GOP's failure to support SCR is going to mean at most they can promise you life support. WE (dems) can promise you attempts to cure such conditions, THEY (GOP) can only offer to keep you breathing because that's as far as their sanctity of life takes them.