Right-wing protestors have been disrupting Democratic town hall meetings across the United States. These town hall meetings are aimed at informing the public on why health care reform is necessary.

However, do these right-wing shenanigans represent freedom of speech or is something more sinister at work—like an attempt to stifle progress and the democratic process?

No doubt, health care reform is needed—it’s an inescapable fact illustrated by the numbers. However, these hecklers have consistently revealed their ignorance of the issues by regurgitating falsities and one-sided arguments. From Think Progress:

During the town hall, one conservative activist turns to his fellow attendees and asks them to raise their hands if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Almost all the hands shot up. Rep Green quickly turned the question on the audience and asked, “How many of you have Medicare?” Nearly half the attendees raised their hands, failing to note the irony.

This video effectively counters the movement to disrupt Democratic town hall meetings:

What’s so great about private health insurance? From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

However, I think it’s important — and telling — to compare those imaginary “what if” stories to the real-life, well-documented and all-too-numerous examples of abuse, corruption and downright cruelty perpetrated in our current system dominated by private “free market” health insurance.

The overall statistics are grim: Health-care costs are rising at double the rate of overall inflation, to the point that health care consumes 17 percent of our gross domestic product, and we pay two to three times more per capita for health care than any other Western industrialized country. And despite all that investment, a significant portion of our population still has no health-care coverage.

That’s not to mention repeated instances of corporate fraud in the health-care sector (see, Richard Scrushy and HealthSouth), denials of coverage for reasons of pre-existing conditions and even outright, after-the-fact cancellation of policies for Americans who faithfully paid premiums for years but saw their policies “rescinded” when they dared to actually file a claim.

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