Yesterday, I walked by the television set as one of the town hall protesters was being interviewed. I say interviewed, but that’s not quite fair. The reporter was asking the man what he was so angry about. And the man was screaming, "Obama’s lying to us!" The reporter asked the guy, "Lying about what?" The man turned on the reporter. "You don’t know? Well you need to get yourself informed buddy," he screamed. The reporter persisted. The man obviously had no clue what the bill was about. He was just yelling. Later, there was a woman screaming, "You’ afraid of us!" "You" being the President. Two weeks ago, it was the "birthers." Now it’s the "deathers," – fabricating fears of government euthanasia out of counselling about living wills. The signs at the protests warn of Socialism, of Communism, of Fascism. I posted some pictures below from the fifties – the crowds protesting integration from the time of my adolescence. I recall a similar kind of protester from the late 1960’s. The earlier non-violent protest of King or the anti-War protesters were peaceful. That was, in fact, the point – demonstrating how many were opposed to something. Showing that the opposition was made up of rational people with a just cause. But then things turned nasty, and the demonstrations became anger fests [and became ineffective].To me, all this yelling and screaming goes nowhere. It might help the Republicans stop the Healthcare reform, or dilute it. But it doesn’t address anything about the health care problem that has become a monster in our country. It does nothing to help the man in that picture when he gets sick and shows up in an emergency room where he’ll accrue an unpayable bill padded with absurd charges. The point of healthcare reform is to rein in entrepeneurship in medicine, and return it to being heath care rather that the "Healthcare Industry."
I don’t have a very good feeling about all of this. The debate isn’t about the issue. It seems to be about something else. I’m not even sure what: Obama’s race. Lobbyists. It sure isn’t about government interference. The last Administration set up a Surveillance system that could tap every phone in America if they wanted to, and these people said nothing. It’s not about money. The last Administration spent gagillions on foreign wars and Bank Bailouts. And it’s not about health care, because the people in those demonstrations are as much the victims of the health care crisis as any of us. I think these people are afraid. I’m unclear about what they are afraid of, but all of this yelling and screaming is about something, fear of something, and no one has put a finger on what.
I remember when President Clinton became president and how from practically day 1 Republicans tried to derail his presidencey. First we had Whitewater, then poor Vince Foster suicide, travelgate, etc. I thought it was caused by a undercurrent of people in the extreme right who couldn’t accept a draft dodging person beating a WW2 war hero Bush1. I think it’s a lot more now. We have a black president and there is a dangerous element feeding some very racist, some sick,, some anti abortionist etc. As in the Clinton Administration it didn’t matter how well the country was doing, there were people who just wanted to destroy Clinton etc. President Obama is fixing an awful mess that Bush2,Cheney made with wars, economy, rising health costs etc and he is doing a good job and it’s not enough, they want to destroy him and the Democrats and get back to winning back the presidencey, and Congress. We need decent people on both sides of the aisle to stop this and so far we really don’t, we just have Senators like Grassley who are making talk to incite riots while President Obama is making back door deals in good faith to him and others to try to give American any kind of health insurance. I’m sick about this and I know that isn’t going to help me. I’ve just sent an email to the White House to voice my concern. I’m scared. The feeding frenzy to destroy any hope for any kind of health coverage or Obama’s presidencey reminds me of sharks feeding when they smell blood in the water. What did one congressman say about if Obama fails with his healthcare bill, it will be his waterloo. Isn’t that a terrible thing to say in public. What did the Dixie chicks lead singer say about how she was ashamed that Bush was from Texas for starting an unprovoked war and she was blacklisted and received many death threats. I’m practically at wits end about this.
I hope POTUS loses patience at least to mild degree with Palin, Bachmann and all the rest of the current crop of plebean pundits. I’d like for him to be at least slightly sarcastic with their notions that he is some Soviet or Maoist proletariat type who will send all of our children and bourgeousie out to the countryside to haul the honey buckets…to reinvent America into a socialist paradise. It’s all such a tremendous crock of manure that it hardly dignifies response but, as the kerfuffles ratchet up to mass psychoses, someone is going to have to lead and the leadership is not, apparently, going to come from the peoples’ representatives in the Congress.
The boy and I just got back from 2+ weeks in the northern Maine wilderness — I liked it there. Moose, bald eagles, fishes and ducks were infinitely more gratifying company than the daily news.
At first I thought it was just crowd manipulation by cynical politicians and mercenary insurance/drug companies. But I’m realizing, as you are, Mickey, that they are not making up the fear/anger in the crowds. They’re just catalyzing and channeling something that’s there.
I too am not sure what it’s about. Maybe fueled by economnic anxiety but grounded in those who feel their way of life is being changed, and they’re scared. Racial fear has got to be part of it — blacks in power, hispanics now our biggest minority group. The poor whites are being left out, left behind — so we better cling go our guns, get paranoid about the gummint taking over and pulling the plug on granma.
I also worry about the pent-up rage expressed in town hall meetings. I now believe it’s more than the republicans’ hand-picked teams of agitators who just try to disrupt anything that might reflect well on the democrats. The republicans have stumbled upon a substrate of fear, expressed as rage. They exploit it to the hilt trying to precipitate Obama’s “Waterloo.†Tell me Charles Grassley can’t read and understand a House bill that contains nothing about “death squads!†Yet there he is, a cornerman to Sarah Palin. I don’t know what to do about it, or how to counter it.
Obama – bless his heart – has so far tried to “nice†his way among the brambles and briar thickets, forever trying for bipartisanship, gamely, doggedly trying to take the high road in spite of the boatloads of calumny and ridicule and vicious personal attack he gets.
I want him to be willing to finally stand up and face it head on. I keep hearing the words of FDR, running for reelection in 1936:
Never before in all our history have these forces
been so united against one candidate as they
stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me,
and I welcome their hatred.
What a guy. No wonder they elected him four times. I hope Obama can stand up like FDR when he has to.
I hadn’t heard that FDR quote. What style!
I remember a quote about FDR from Oliver Wendall Holmes when the new president did what all the previous presidents did by visiting Holmes while Holmes was in the Supreme Court after being sworn in as president. Holmes supposedly said about FDR “First class personality, second class intellect” I think Holmes sold him short by a mile.