Racist Doctors Oppose Obama Health Care Plan?

There have been all sorts of sad sacks and looney-tunes who have been out there protesting via tea parties, tea bagging, and all sorts of other tea-related venues, typically against government intervention into their tortured, miserable lives.

It's tough being a white man in America these days. I've never had it tougher. Just Tuesday, I couldn't take advantage of the free pastry offer at Starbucks because the man wouldn't let me out of a meeting because protecting the firm's technology assets is apparently more important than a gratis bear claw.

As I watched the 2008 presidential campaign, and later some of the tea-protests, there was often a distinct racist overtone to them - whether expressed by signs being carried, hatred spewed in the direction of video cameras, or handouts and literature being distributed. The moment a protest goes all hate-ish like that, I lose all interest in the cause and focus my attention on making fun of the protesters.

There's been some of that in the health care debate, too, some of it from surprising sources. For example, there's Dr. David McKalip, a Florida neurosurgeon who has apparently been scratching his own brain with sharp instruments.

Dr. Dave is a conservative activist affiliated with the tea-bagger movement, so there's strike one against him. He's a member of the American Medical Association's Board of Delegates, which while not a strike down the middle, certainly hugs the edge of the plate. The call could go either way there, depending on the ump.

He also founded an anti-reform group, Doctors for Patient Freedom, which sounds less like being about his patients than it does being about Dr. Dave getting his way in spite of patients. But I digress.

The hard fastball that sends Dr. Dave back to the dugout is a racist picture he's alleged to have forwarded, showing our president mocked up in what Dr. Dave calls "an African witch doctor," ostensibly to cement the image that Obama's reform strategy involves an eye of newt. Swing and a miss, Dr. Dave.

When questioned, Dr. Dave didn't want to spend much time explaining why he thinks perpetuating racial stereotypes is the best way as a physician to advance his thoughts on how the proposed changes to our health care system would adversely effect the very people he's sworn an oath to heal. Perhaps the explanation is as simple as this - Dr. Dave is a racist douchebag.

I wonder what my friends at the A.M.A. think? Will they disavow Dr. Dave's comments, kick him off the board, or tell him to be more careful next time?

Conservative Activist Forwards Racist Pic Showing Obama as Witch Doctor, via TPMMuckraker