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Democrats flummoxed by health care protests
By: Michael Barone
Senior Political Analyst
08/10/09 4:49 PM EDT
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| Joan Korman ,left, and Dawn Tabrizi, right, hold protest signs during a rally protesting government managed health care in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) |
This morning we were treated to a smug USA Today opinion article by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer. “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American,” they write. Actually, drowning out a speaker—by the boos some Democratic members of Congress have been greeted with or by the loud cheering that greeted Barack Obama so often during the 2008 campaign season—is not un-American or illegitimate. Preventing someone from speaking altogether—drowning them out permanently—is rude, boorish and often self-defeating; but not un-American. But the more interesting part of the article is not the headline quote, but the oozing condescension toward so many American voters toward the bill Pelosi and Hoyer assert the House “will” pass in September. “Health care is complex.”
To paraphrase another common saying: It’s a complex thing; you wouldn’t understand. You should listen docilely and take instruction from your betters. Or as Senator Clair McCaskill said at the beginning of a town hall meeting in Poplar Bluff, Missouri today (I was listening to the audio while preparing to appear on Fox News, asking members of the audience, “How many of you are so angry you can’t think straight?” The condescending implication is that if you could think straight, you’d support my position. Or recall what Barack Obama said campaigning in Virginia August 6: “I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.”
As Ring Lardner once wrote, describing a flummoxed father. “’Shut up,’ he explained.”
What should we think of the negative responses to the Democrats at town hall meetings? I’m linking to video with hat tips to some of my favorite blogs here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
The only violence that I have heard of was in St. Louis where an SEIU union thug beat a black conservative who was handing out “don’t tread on me” flags. Here’s video of a tea party protest of the SEIU violence and here’s more on SEIU tactics.
You can take a look and judge for yourselves. My tentative conclusions: The Democrats’ health care bills have stirred widespread and deeply felt opposition. While some of the protests are organized, the turnout and strong feeling expressed indicate that we are watching something that is largely spontaneous. Try organizing such a protest when almost no one cares much about your issue: no one will show up. It’s the supporters of the Democrats’ health care bills, not their opponents, who are astroturfing—and spending plenty of moolah on television ads and the like.
The Democrats are spoiled because they are used to a mainstream media who spin things their way and a general public whose only expressions of spontaneous enthusiasm in 2006-08 were opposition to (if not hatred of) George W. Bush and support of Barack Obama and other Democratic candidates. Now the spontaneous enthusiasm is all on the other side, with the Democratic astroturf efforts producing pathetic turnouts and largely spontaneous opposition to the Democratic health care plans producing large turnouts.
By the way, aren’t you not supposed to call your political opponents unpatriotic? Or un-American?
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