Wow! Protests are breaking out all over. Finally! Here is a link to the latest protest in my state which occurred yesterday.
The Associated Press reports “White House advises Dems on health care protests”. I find that title hilarious. Like the Democrats who came into their own during the protests of the ‘60’s have forgotten what that was like? Or do they think their party is the only one who can organize protest marches, disrupt meetings, shout down speakers, etc.? Protest is allowed under our Constitution, no matter what party you belong to. I think they’re just p.o.’d that Republicans would have the audacity (hey, haven’t we heard that word before?) to protest in a manner that the Dem’s thought they had copyrighted.
The lead sentence in the AP story is this:
“Top White House officials counseled Democratic senators Thursday on coping with disruptions at public events on health care this summer, officials said, and promised the party and allies would respond with twice the force if any individual lawmaker is criticized in television advertising.”
What the heck? I get it, now we can’t criticize politicians in TV advertising. This party can sure dish it out but they can’t take an ounce of pushback! These are the people who have demonized anyone who did not and does not see it their way.
I’d like to remind you of what conservative citizens in California have suffered by the hands of Democrats when Prop 8 was on the ballot. People who donated money or otherwise supported the proposition against same sex marriage had their names and addresses published in liberal newspapers and on the Internet. Their businesses were boycotted, their churches, synagogues and mosques were desecrated. They endured threats to their lives. Now that’s something a political party can be proud of! (I will say for the record that some members of the gay community condemned these tactics.)
Peggy Noonan wrote this in her Wall Street Journal column yesterday, which was subtitled “Voters send a message to Washington and get an ugly response”:
And so the shock on the faces of Congressmen who’ve faced the grillings back home. And really, their shock is the first thing you see in the videos. They had no idea how people were feeling…
The passions of the protesters, on the other hand, are not a surprise. They hired a man to represent them in Washington. They give him a big office, a huge staff and the power to tell people what to do. They give him a car and a driver, sometimes a security detail, and a special pin showing he’s a congressman. And all they ask in return is that he see to their interests and not terrify them too much. Really, that’s all people ask. Expectations are very low. What the protesters are saying is, “You are terrifying us.”
What has been most unsettling is not the congressmen’s surprise but a hard new tone that emerged this week. The leftosphere and the liberal commentariat charged that the town hall meetings weren’t authentic, the crowds were ginned up by insurance companies, lobbyists and the Republican National Committee. But you can’t get people to leave their homes and go to a meeting with a congressman (of all people) unless they are engaged to the point of passion. And what tends to agitate people most is the idea of loss—loss of money hard earned, loss of autonomy, loss of the few things that work in a great sweeping away of those that don’t.
People are not automatons. They show up only if they care.
But most damagingly to political civility, and even our political tradition, was the new White House email address to which citizens are asked to report instances of “disinformation” in the health-care debate: If you receive an email or see something on the Web about health-care reform that seems “fishy,” you can send it to flag@whitehouse.gov. The White House said it was merely trying to fight “intentionally misleading” information. (Aside. I have a friend who suggested we all report our own blogs! I’m actually thinking about doing that. Hmmm.)
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Wednesday wrote to the president saying he feared that citizens’ engagement could be “chilled” by the effort. He’s right, it could. He also accused the White House of compiling an “enemies list.” If so, they’re being awfully public about it, but as Byron York at the Washington Examiner pointed, the emails collected could become a “dissident database.”
All of this is unnecessarily and unhelpfully divisive and provocative. They are mocking and menacing concerned citizens. This only makes a hot situation hotter. Is this what the president wants?
The president should call in his troops and his Congress and announce a rethinking. There are too many different bills, they’re all a thousand pages long, no one has time to read them, no one knows what’s going to be in the final one, the public is agitated, the nation’s in crisis, the timing is wrong, we’ll turn to it again—but not now. We’ll take a little longer, ponder every aspect, and make clear every complication.
You know what would happen if he did this? His numbers would go up. Even Congress’s would. Because they’d look responsive, deliberative and even wise. Discretion is the better part of valor…
Being a child of the ‘60’s who cut her political teeth on public protest & civil disobedience, I know that protests can indeed go too far. I would like to see less shouting from those opposing the current healthcare legislation and more sit-ins, which I feel would be very effective.
Remember the ‘90’s and the Operation Rescue protests at abortion clinics? We weren’t afraid to have a sit-in, get arrested and go to jail to make a point. We need to protest loudly and effectively. It worked for Gandhi, the Civil Rights Movement and it can work now.
Those who hold public office have to realize that they will lose their job if they do not represent their constituents. As I say every week: speak up! Besides, as Christians, we might as well get use to really putting ourselves on the line.
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