Allahpundit gets at the essence of the Democrats’ angst:
Let me remind you again: They can pass any bill they want any time they want. Conservatives can scream their heads off at these things and there’s not an ounce of good it’ll do if Democrats are united. This whole partisan “war” Obama and Axelrod have concocted is kabuki theater against an enemy they’ve already (momentarily) defeated; it’s the Blue Dogs’ fear that they’ll be thrown out of office if they vote for this travesty that’s put the left in the predicament they’re in.
Emphasis added.
While the Democrats may rant and rave about those repugnant Republicans, the real issue is that they can’t hold their own party together.
And despite controlling all the levers of power, Democrats (and their allies on left-wing blogs), as Amity Shlaes noted back in May, seem angrier than ever. Basically, the issue is more psychological than political, they need a target upon which to spew their venom. And since they’ve long hated Republicans, why take down the target now that the GOP is out of power?
I mean, think about this for a second, they’ve elected a charismatic guy President who manages to get his mug on TV more often than most of his predecessors. Much of the media leans left and gives their viewpoint favorable coverage. With congressional majorities, they have more elected officials with more ready access to local media than do Republicans. And they have Health Care for American Now (HCAN), an outfit with a $40 million budget to promote the Democrats’ proposed health care overhaul.
And yet, despite all these resources as their disposal, Americans disapprove of the President’s performance on health care. It’s not just one poll. Via Glenn, we learn, “Polls from National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal/NBC News, The Washington Post, Gallup, and Pew all show that the American people do not support President Barack Obama’s health care plan.”
What went wrong? With a party led by a man adept at organizing, they can’t control public opinion, so they demonize adversaries and labeling concerned citizens as tools of corporate interests:
So now we have the spectacle of the White House trying to demonize the health insurers which it was not so long ago romancing and trying to label as “mobs” and “astroturf” voters who show up at town meetings and voice opposition to Democratic health care proposals—this from a president who during his campaign urged his supporters to respond to those opposing him by “get[ting] in their faces.” These seem like desperation tactics to me.
In desperation, they lash out at their opponents. But, I thought Obama had said he was trying to “break” that “pattern in Washington where everybody is always looking for somebody else to blame.”
Now, he and his allies are blaming Republicans (and an industry typically allied with the GOP) for his inability to move public opinion in the direction he wants it to go and for his failure to unite his party behind his statist initiatives.
*And “right-wing” interest groups. And health insurerers.
What depresses me is how many people who get their news from mainstream news sources are unaware of anything that’s in the bill, yet they are starting to buy into the demagoguery about those evil insurance companies. I overheard two colleagues today at work bemoaning a story they heard from a doctor about a test he wanted to give a patient that was denied by an insurance company. I wasn’t participating in the conversation–they were on the other side of the room. But if I felt more comfortable being outspoken about these things in the workplace, I might have interjected that as bad as they might think insurance companies are, I can’t imagine that a government that has to cut costs by rationing care is going to approve such tests any more readily.
Kurt, one wonders what happens at the end of your eavesdropped conversation. I mean, did he get one of those other tests? The President would chide us to take the red pill rather than the blue pill. Surely there is also a good test and a gooder test. I suspect that whatever medical question that was raised by this colleagues physician was sufficiently answered in the end….
Instead of undergoing a methacholine challenge perhaps he went to the local ER and got an inhalator. There you have it. Asthma diagnosed with out one of those expensive tests!
Weren’t Obama’s speeches supposed to magically bring us all together on every issue? Weren’t we finally going to realize that all we have to do is imagine no possessions, give peace a chance, and all we need is love? What happened? Why don’t the speeches work anymore? Where did the magic go?
What went wrong? With a party led by a man adept at organizing,
And there it is. He was only used to “organizing” people who thought the same or were easy to bring around. That’s easy. Now he’s having to deal with millions of folks who don’t think or want to think the way he does. Must be tough on the ego.
Instead of ending this and going back to the drawing table he IGNITED it by having his union thugs go out to these townhalls which up until tonight had NOT ONE incident of violence. I have said elsewhere this will be Obama’s and the Democrats summer of discontent and the only good thing that will come out of it is taking the House back in 2010!
I was on vacation last week in Arizona and had the opportunity to speak to one couple from Alberta, Canada and one couple from England. The couple from Canada told me that they work for 6 months to pay for government. They also told me that their “health care wunderkind” isnt all that it is reported to be to those of us in the USA. They told me that is why Canadiens who can afford it make the trip south to get health care in the US. Humm… The couple from England also bemoaned their “health care wunderkind” system as well. Seems the only people who believe that the US health care system needs an emergency overhaul are the political class and their cronies in government.
Duffy you’d think a man as wise and learned as Obama could learn from experience.
That’s the trouble, GPW, they are not wise and learned. We consevatives have to listen to the left, they’re everywhere. They, on the other hand, can live their whole lives without ever listening to us. Conservative newspapers are stolen on campuses. Conservative speakers are shouted down.
The left lives in a narrow little world, LA and New York, Chicago and Saint Louis. And when a conservative actually gets into a place run by leftists, it’s just got to be a foul plot because everyone they know agrees with them. Too bad they’re not smart enough to figure out that it is their people bussed in with professionally printed signs while are peole have home made saigns and drive themselves.
The Democrats are sowing disunity, not only in their own party, but in America. They use government force to reward their sick, ‘loser’ friends (in corporate America and elsewhere) while sticking it to all the productive people. And they propose to do more and more of it. That is morally wrong. And it is violence. It is the use of violence – i.e., the threat of government force, which ends with you dead or in jail if you resist it long enough – to achieve evil ends.
Since the Democrats are practicing violence in and on America and to achieve evil ends, we should properly blame them for the disunity and violence that should result as people rightly protest and defend themselves.
P.S. For the record, I am in no way advocating nor condoning violence; I am merely pointing out who is, in fact, committing massive violence on us all, and who will have been the initiator of any “cycle of violence” that results (if one results).
O. should just repeat his “I won” demagoguery and pass this sh*t. What’s the holdup? You won dude, pass it already.
Unless … I mean, if there’s something inherently WRONG with what you’re trying to do …
Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t finessed this better.