Squaring the Culture

Citizens all over the country have risen up and confronted their elected representatives over the charade that is ObamaCare, and the Democrats in power have responded to the voice of the people… by attempting to paint them as mobs of extremists organized by cynical political fixers, who can’t possibly be sincere because they’re too well dressed. Seriously.

Michelle Malkin takes the left to task today for its utterly predictable, utterly disingenuous reaction to legitimate voter anger over having national health care jammed down their throats. Read:

The same Democrat Masters of Astroturf who encouraged their followers to use “in your face” tactics during the campaign season now balk at vocal opposition from their fiscally conservative neighbors and co-workers. Obama’s architects of Kabuki town halls have packed public forums with partisan plants. Now, they accuse opponents gathering at impromptu rallies against the massive health care takeover legislation (which no one has read) of orchestrating “manufactured anger.”

Unaccustomed to pushback, the wealthy, astro-turfed ground troops for Obamacare – underwritten by unions, liberal philanthropists, the AARP, ACORN, and your tax dollars — have resorted to projection. As I’ve reported previously, the single-payer lobby boasts a $40 million budget and a stable of seasoned political operatives based at 1825 K Street in Washington, D.C. Now, that cabal is accusing the broad coalition of taxpayer activists, libertarians, independents, talk radio loyalists, bloggers, and first-time protesters against socialized medicine of being, yes, wealthy and astroturfed.

In a comical missive issued Tuesday afternoon, Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse complained: “The Republicans and their allied groups — desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill — are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country.”

The DNC definition of “thoughtful:” Sitting silent about the lack of transparency, deliberation, truth in numbers, and reciprocity on the Obamacare plan. The DNC definition of incitement: Asking out loud, “How can you manage health care when you can’t manage Cash For Clunkers?”

Of course, most of this is not organized, though it would be perfectly legal and appropriate even if it were. The truth is that the majority of Americans do not want the government taking over health care, particularly if it will add to the deficit. The likelihood of that — adding to the deficit — is 100%.

“President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress appear to be losing the public relations war over their plan to revamp the nation’s health care system,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

And since they’re losing, they start hurling lies. How… classy.

There’s no sense getting angry about the left’s reaction. What we’re seeing from some of the unconnected Democrats (like Boxer’s comment about them being well-dressed) is just a confused, wounded reaction to learning that the public does not love the Master that feeds them. However, what’s coming from the White House is pure, Soviet-style disinformation. It turns out that the completely manufactured sound bites we got used to hearing from the Soviets were not something particularly Russian, but something particularly Marxist — the Alinsky-style tactic of simply lying about your opposition. It’s what they do. They’ll continue to make such noise even as they go down in flames, and when the voters throw them out in 2010, we’ll have had a “tantrum,” or worse — we’ll be “vigilantes.”

Mob rule is when the mob takes the law into its own hands and forces other citizens to conform to their will. When a crowd of angry citizens confronts the government representative and demands action consistent with their advocacy, it’s not called mob rule, it’s called petitioning the government, an activity favored by our founders and explicitly protected in the US Constitution. If you want to see what real mob rule tactics look like, Malkin has good videos of tactics being carried out by leftist activists, here, or you can recall this mob activism launched against a Los Angeles restauranteur in the wake of the Prop 8 vote, or this flood of filth aimed at getting a Miss USA contestant to stop violating the mob’s sentiments, or even this threat from the President of mob activism against bankers, or these from the campaign trail. They’ve been doing it for years.

Do something legal but heated in return, and you’re a “teabagger” and a “thug.” But at least they seem to like our clothes.

A caller on Michael Graham’s talk show this morning (WTKK, 96.9 FM, Boston) who had attended one of the town hall meetings, related what the shouting was about at the meeting she had attended. The organizers passed out note cards on which the citizens were to write their questions, saying that the Representatives would read the questions and respond. The citizens did not like this — most of them, apparently, were not favorable to the government’s health care plan — and liked it even less when the Representatives started reading the questions, and every one of the questions that were read were favorable to the government’s plan. Realizing that they were being deliberately ignored, they started shouting their questions and demanding responses.

Who’s the mob, and who’s the victim? Who’s strong-arming whom, here?

But, as I said, this is who they are. We need to consider — is it possible for a republic to remain free when one of the two major parties does not actually intend to abide by the rules of the republic, but will assert dictatorial rule by whatever means necessary? If not, why should anybody not of this party consent to participate with them? Even if we manage to get the government out of the hands of these thugs, how long will it be before they manage to lie their way back into power again? We need to consider what it means to provide new guards for our future security; continuing to participate with incipient tyrants makes no sense. I say, partition the nation, and let the Progressives have their own land to ruin as they see fit — but let’s get them the hell out of ours.

The cake of the day goes to the craven Democratic Representative who lacked the courage to cancel his town hall meeting, but also lacked the courage to face an angry public. His solution? Announce the time of the meeting incorrectly, to minimize the crowd (a lot of them are doing this), and hold the town hall meeting… wait for it… at a children’s hospital.

It’s who they are.

Graphic from Michelle Malkin.