A little calm is in order amidst the major media's emphasis on the violent nature of reaction to the passage of the health care bill.
With only a few exceptions, protests have been limited to angry language of the type that is a fairly common in heated political disagreements. As the writer of this article states, some of the language is inappropriate and rude (and I would add rhetorical exaggeration), but that doesn't alter the fact that a significant portion of the American people are not pleased with being ignored by their Representatives and Senators. Nor are they pleased with a bill that gives the federal government control over 1/6 of the economy, dictates (yes dictates) that they purchase health insurance, takes away choices and plants the seeds for controlling the amount and kind of health care they will be eligible to receive in the near future. The people are justified in being displeased, though not perhaps in the way some express that displeasure. But the level of their rhetoric is understandable and the actual "threats" are being grossly overstated by much of the media. ~~~ S. Lane
From The Detroit News
The real threat presented by the hate mail is to the Democratic pretense that they've passed a bill demanded and welcomed by the American people. Neither Stupak nor Schauer can say with any credibility that their votes represented the will of their right-of-center Michigan districts.
Nor can the Democratic caucus as a whole. Democrats won the White House and control of Congress on the votes of a broad majority of the country. Then they declared a mandate to govern on behalf of their narrow partisan base.
That's why people are angry. They feel betrayed. And they don't get a sense that their feelings matter in Washington.
Elections have consequences. But so does political arrogance. Democrats made a higher priority of delivering a political victory for President Barack Obama than serving the nation with good policymaking.
Now they're learning that the majority isn't silent. If Democrats keep pretending not to hear the people, they'll only grow louder and angrier.
Democrats' deafness reaps hate mail | detnews.com | The Detroit News
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