NEOAVATARA

c/o Michael Ramirez, IBD Editorial

The last week, we have seen a blatant attempt by the left to discredit, smear, and marginalize the protests to the health care reform bill currently languishing in the halls of Congress. The term ‘UnAmerican‘ seems to be bandied around quite commonly this week.  Directed and organized by the White House, primarily by Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, this was a coordinated effort to try to paint those against health care reform as extremists, racists, and even terrorists.

It hasn’t, and won’t, work. It is backfiring already.

If there goal was to diminish the emotions behind the protests, they have failed miserably.  I knew people were angry a week or two ago about this issue.  You could feel it simmering below the surface.  Today, they are furious.  My email box is full of people irate about how middle America is being painted by both the Democratic party and the media.  The Democrats actions are to be expected.  But people are just disturbed to the core when outlets such as MSNBC practically call these Americans terrorists.

Let me tell you this.  I don’t think that the protest movement was all that organized in July.  I hadn’t even heard of people going to these townhall meetings and asking questions at that time, and I am generally ‘in the loop’ on these things.  A few YouTube videos later, the left thinks we have a vast right wing conspiracy.

Well, you get what you wish for:  I think that conspiracy is up and running.

Look at the success rate.  How successful have the protests by a small amount of people been?  Much more successful than any money spent on television ads.  Certainly more effective than the GOP.  Here is how successful they have been:  there are numerous New York Representatives (including Rep. Tim Bishop of Long Island, Rep. Steve Israel (D-LI), and Rep. Scott Murphy of the Albany area) who are too scared to hold any public hearings on health care.  Remember:  these guys are in BLUE districts.  If Democrats can’t convince people in their own districts, who exactly are they going to convince?

The last two weeks have resulted in a coalescing of various political forces into one single voice.  Maybe that voice isn’t coordinated, but the movement is.  The protests are clearly stating that the public will not accept a far left wing reform bill on health care, regardless what the so called Congression and Presidential leadership voices say.  In fact, a month ago I was convinced that health care would pass; maybe by the smallest of margins, but still would pass.  Today, I think the opposite…I think there will be a fight, and that the current health care bill will probably fail.

And we have to thank Barack Obama and his Chicagoland Thuggery for the results.

Americans are a practical people.  Sure, many of them are not fully educated on the health care bill (like the man who didn’t realize Medicare was a government program).  And I doubt more than one-tenth of one percent of people have read the bill in its entirety, as I have; of course, the obvious question is how many members of Congress have read the bill?

That said, they do have some fundamental beliefs. They want their Constitutional freedoms protected.  They want Washington to, most of the time, stay out of their lives.  And the last thing they want is to be dictated from D.C. what they should and should not accept.  President Obama clearly hasn’t learned that lesson.  Listen to Obama’s arrogance on Wednesday:

“We’ve got some work to do. I don’t mind, by the way, being responsible. I expect to be held responsible for these issues because I’m the president,” Obama said. “But I don’t want the folks that created the mess — 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.

“I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”

That kind of talk doesn’t go over very well with most Americans.  The last thing they want is for some elitist telling the peons how to behave.  Additionally, wasn’t Mr. Obama part of the establishment?  For example, wasn’t Mr. Obama part of the mess the past two years as Senator, when Democrats ruled Congress?  Or is he admitting that the Democratic led Congress was impotent and incompetent during his tenure there?  Because as I see it, since 2004, Barack Obama was part of the system, and thus, part of the problem.  As is government…Rasmussen now shows by a 51%-41% ration, people prefer private insurance to government insurance.  And by a wide margin (57%-32%) people fear a single payer…making a public option all that harder.  That does not bode well for Obama.

On the conservative side, I don’t think there is any unity on policy.  Far from it.  The extreme right wants nothing to change.  More moderate voices, like myself, believe there should be reform but don’t believe the drastic change called for by the President makes any sense.  But what we all want is a more rational, well thought out debate.  And that is something we are sorely lacking.

Again, I ask people to make up their own minds. Don’t listen to talking heads like myself.  Learn as much as you can about health care…learn what the Democrats are trying to do…and make a decision for yourself.  But once you decide if you are for or against the current health care bill, I say get out their and use your voice.  Don’t let anyone on either side of the aisle tell you otherwise.  It is the way of democracy. And now is the moment for you to use your God given rights as an American.

UPDATE:

Claire McCaskill from Missouri:  Kudos.  I don’t agree with a lot from her, but good for her for being a reasonable adult in a week that had few of either.