"Un-American"

"Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American." That's what the Democratic leaders of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, say in a USA Today column that attacks critics of their healthcare plan for supposedly not letting others speak.

Vladimir Lenin said that all politics comes down to "kto kvo"---Russian for "who whom," who's doing the attacking, who's being attacked? That cynical materialist view asserts that people act out of class interests, not principles, but in this debate the assertion may hold true. Government centralizers depict themselves as altruists, but they have a special interest in gaining more power. Some opponents of centralized healthcare are also defending special interests.

It's true that drowning out opposing views is un-American, but when this jibe is directed against one side or the other, the use of "un-American" seems an attempt to demonize the opposition. Liberals for years protested the existence of the House Un-American Activities Committee. They should be careful about resurrecting the term.