AntiBVBL

I fear a radical third party is emerging in the United States. They are neither Democrats nor Republicans. They are “something else”. Folks like Governor-Elect McDonnell and Joe Scarborough (author of the book, “The Last Best Hope”) have charted a pragmatic “govern from the middle” strategy that just make the Republican Party viable. On the extreme end of the spectrum, we have folks like Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, the Tea Party crowd, et.al., leveraging the rights that they are afforded under the Constitution to perhaps destroy our form of Government.

The success of Democracy has long been predicated on the principle of “the loyal opposition.” The party out of power might disagree with the incumbent party; however, they recognized that it represents the opinion of the majority of Americans during a period of history. “The loyal opposition” also recognizes its obligation to continue the business of Government in the interests of the people. John McCain is probably the best example of this concept.

There is an element in this Country clearly not interested in supporting the business of Government or the success and future of this Country. We have seen this before in history. I fear that unless there is a significant backlash among the majority of Americans, those folks who might disagree while cooperating for the greater good, the Republic may be at risk. Unfortunately, electorate complacency is a cultural reality in our Country thus leaving our future to those who “show up” (and the folks that show up don’t represent the majority these days).

We will see more tea parties, obstructionist activity in the House and the Senate, media rants, etc. I voted against Bob McDonnell. After reading his speech about “Governing from the middle”, I believe that he might actually be the answer to our problem. These radicals come from the left right [changed at request of author]. While (IMHO) they are not really “Republicans”, they operate under the cover of Republican Party affiliation (the lesser of two evils principle). I hope that Bob McDonnell and others (it’s obvious that I would like to see Joe Scarborough on a ticket in the future) bring sanity to the left right [changed at request of author] and restore the “big tent” that at one time provided cover for those who favor fiscally conservative policy and small Government.

Correction “…sanity to the right…” not the left (although extremists at both ends could use a bit of help). Freudian slip, I suppose.

M-H… note my correction.

I agree with Opinions assessment. Where was their outrage over the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, which cost almost 800 billion in the end. I guess it’s not socialism when it put the money in the pocket of big business.

I cannot fathom how Opinion’s mind could come to be so twisted, bent, and broken. Like his predecessor, ShellyB, one has to envision years of brain-washing, an adverse reaction to psychoactive medication, or a horrible hunting accident could cause the damage that allows a person to exist in the modern world without the capacity to interpret their surroundings. Every sentence is almost purposely crafted to display a lack of understanding. Like Nancy Pelosi herself, the ability to ignore or be oblivious to fundamental truths is astounding. With someone like Pelosi, it makes sense, she’s so sheltered from the experience of the electorate. With someone like Opinion, I can think of no excuse for such a twisted lack of understanding.

Actually, I take a piece of that back. After another reading, things become a bit more clear. Nobody wants to admit that their ideology is wrong to it’s very core, and to some extent the majority of the country got caught up in the simple but effective marketing campaign that swept a community organizer with zero executive experience into a political office. Now they are beginning to see their beloved idol trip and falter with every step, and they can’t believe their dream could come to an end so quickly. Under those circumstances, one could envision the level of denial (among the most powerful of psychological forces, like greed) resulting in something as unbelievable as Opinion’s first post.

Connolly? One can only laugh.

@Slowpoke Rodriguez
Actually, Slowpoke… I admit to many of the things of which you accuse me. Twenty-two years serving my Country in foreign wars of dubious origin and exposure to a variety of different political systems certainly color my view of the world. Experience is a harsh teacher; however, there is no substitute for its lessons.

Fortunately, we have people like you to tell people who can’t think for themselves what they should think and do. Your harsh tone actually confirms my hypothesis (the “those who disagree with me must be crazy” theory). Thanks anyway; however, I have no problem thinking for myself.

As implied by my handle, this is just my opinion.

Opinion :
Thanks anyway; however, I have no problem thinking for myself.

Mmmmm, yeah, actually you clearly do, but I’m not going to spend another word in attacking you personally on this, because correcting a wrong message can de done, dealing with the delusional is almost always a waste of time.

@Moon-howler
So you think most Americans believe that even though the Democrats have a super-majority, that the Republicans (or the opposition) is still “obstructing” them? I see.

Moon-howler :
What are you smoking? I never mentioned a super majority. I said most Americans feel like Opinion does. He isn’t an anomoly.

I can’t read Opinion’s post for you, but perhaps you can explain what “obstructionist activity in the House and Senate” is?

I mean other than a Nancy Pelosi talking point.

Moon-howler :
I am getting the impression that there is this longing to be able to dress as an Indian and go dump some tea. That behavior was unlawful then and it is unlawful now.

Is that “God Save the Queen” I hear in the background? I am reminded of KG, who continuously whined about Greg threatening her physically. Imagine the damage caused by a mouse attacking a Wholly Mammoth!

The legal concept is “disparity of force”.

“Wild thuggery is just not the way to accomplish political change”, huh? Well, as soon as the left figures that out, we’re on the road to recovery!

“Most Americans would rather make changes through legislation rather than through revolution. It is cheaper ”

Not really.

I noted the statement in the orginal blog post, “The tea party participants really think they don’t have to play by the long time established rules.”

Interestingly, it was the PRO-REFORM people, not the people of tea bag persuasion, that got arrested but none of the discussion above has pointed that out very well nor has there been any criticism about their activity.

M-H yes please, thanx.

Er…I must have missed something along the way. That’s what I get for having tons of work to do.

That said, it matters not if you are a mouse or a mammoth if you are carrying a gun.

It’s highly unlikely that Connolly and his staff were “set-up”, arrogant and inexperienced in the ways of The Hill yes, set-up no. In truth, Connolly’s “tried and true” methods that marked his tenure on the Fairfax Board will not work on The Hill and Burke is truly a petty piece of baggage. For what its worth, its not atypical of many freshman congressmen and their staffs, it takes time to learn the nuances of Congressional representation and constituent services. Fortunately (at least for me) those are not lessons they are likely to learn before its time to box up their personal belongings after the next election.

Connolly is in a tough position here. Unless he’s completely stupid, he knows the only reason he’s in office is because he shared a ticket with BO, and that fact will either not be there to help him next year, or more likely, could hurt him. He’s probably under intense pressure to lick Pelosi’s floppy clown shoes, but he also knows the clear majority of Americans (including his pesky constituents) see through this health care power grab and want NO parts of it. So he has to deny what he’s seeing and hearing parrot the same lines to poo he’s told to parrot. He’s hoping beyond hope that he can put the screws to his constituents and they’ll forget come next November.
Now, nobody has the right to touch him without his permission, do we have any proof that that really happened? And let me make this absolutely clear (channeling Obama), Connolly’s word is NOT proof.

Yes, but the article that was cited only talked of the arrest of the pro-reformers. I thought you alluded to it in your discussion of the Capitol Police.

The Capitol Police were not apparently involved in the Connolly thing (at least in the article).

Both groups sound like they had questionable activities but only the people from Tea parties have been criticized.

I wasn’t there for either instance so I don’t know whether any of this has been blown out of proportion. I tend to believe most emotionally charged situations are blown out of proportion.

Wolfie, it wasn’t intended to be a criticism of you or anyone, it was an observation that I thought fairness dictated to be said.

By the way, the way a newspaper can slant news is to have the sensational lead about a local Congressman and then slide into the middle about some arrests. They know that people read things quickly so they miss certain details and assume that the same group that put an arm on the Congressman were arrested, when in fact they weren’t the ones.

The more sensational part of the story was the arrest but it was buried in an article where someone put an arm on another.

@Slowpoke Rodriguez
Well-stated, Slowpoke.

License plates?

In response to the rantings of Opinion, I would like to remind him that loyalty to the main political parties is not a measure of patriotism. If the two parties are involved in unconstitutional power grabs, then I will do all that I can to hinder them. If those measures do pass, then I will work night and day to get those people replaced, regardless of party affiliation. If you think that’s radical, that’s your problem.

One more thing: I have just as much or more military experience than you, but my conclusions are quite different than yours. So stop playing the military card like your opinion is somehow more informed than everyone’s here. That’s the sort of arrogance that gives vets a bad name.

I respect the service of those who served, but it doesn’t automatically translate into being correct about every little thing (John McCain is the apex example here). The damage McCain would have caused with his amnesty and bail-out support would have more than completely countered any good he may have done in the past.

Vlad the impaler was and still is looked upon as a great military hero in his native lands.

HA! I just figured out how you do that!! (Sorry. It has been bugging me.)

I think you’d have to be a bit of a conspiracy theorist to think that Connolly was set up, as in the victim of something planned in advance. But Connolly certainly did himself no favors. He’s had a really bad week. He was already considered somewhat vulnerable before Tuesday’s election and the fact that McDonnell carried Fairfax County and Connolly’s district by 5 points is a problem. Add to that, he is one of the 40 or so Democrats that the House leadership needs to get 28 votes out of this weekend or the health reform bill dies. If he votes for the bill, he’ll get blasted with every negative thing that’s in the bill. If he doesn’t and the bill dies, good luck getting SEIU workers come next November.

Connolly’s best hope for re-election in 2010 is to avoid nationalizing his race. Keep the race focused on bringing home the bacon and he has a shot. Trying to have one of your constituants arrested for having the temerity to touch your arm isn’t good publicity. People can have a number of different reactions to Connolly’s actions but none of them make Connolly look distinguished, calm, cool, collected or reasonable.

If Finian were to exploit this, he would do everything he could to nationalize this incident. It would pour money into the race. If he could get mobilized quickly enough, he could get some flash money, probably $200-300k by Monday. That’s a healthy amount of cash to get 12 months out of the race. I don’t think Finian is in a situation to exploit Connolly’s gaffe that quickly though. Finian has been a little slow out of the gate so far.

Connolly needs to keep a lower profile and let his legislative accomplishments speak for him, since he doesn’t seem to do a great job doing it himself.

@kelly3406
Kelly, my opinion is what it is. My experience is what it is. My career in Special Operations gave me interesting insight into political power and the tenuous nature of Government. There was a time in our history when we “specialized” in taking down Governments (and we weren’t that good at it). I’ll draw upon my career as I see fit and encourage you to do the same (with your military and life experiences). The simple fact that perhaps you are uncomfortable with something I say really doesn’t change my right to say it. The fact that you might disagree with me doesn’t offend me; however, the form of your disagreement is offensive. When one lacks an argument to counter a position, it is normal to substitute insults (such as you and others appear quick to do).

Here’s a logic problem that you might like to fill in (or not):
All Governments fail.
The united States is managed by a Government.
…

The trick is to make the answer later vice sooner… and to be replaced by something better. The short answer is that I believe within the context of the failure of our Financial systems, growing deficits, wars we can’t afford, a collapsing infrastructure etc, etc, etc. we should all be pulling together. To me it is analogous to being on a ship with a hole in it. Our hope is that all will grab a bucket and throw water out rather than do nothing while we sink (obstructionism) or put water in (the people I refer to in my original post) while we try and fix the hole.

I really don’t want to join Great Britain and Spain as other “has-been” super powers while the future is ruled by China (our Creditor and heir apparent) and/or the ever evolving EU.

I freely admit that I could be wrong; however, its just my opinion. Thank you for your service to our Country.

I like your thinking. Re-inventing Government is the answer. The Constitution gives us a roadmap and a process for change (Article V). (IMHO) Thinking “Party” vice “American” just won’t get us there.

Moon-howler :
It is hard to give credence to much of anything involving immigration when we are calling any change ‘amnesty.’

Unless we call it something it isn’t (like the “competitive option”), we can’t acknowledge it.

@Opinion
I also agree that we should work together toward making things better. But labeling people as radicals because they disagree with a government agenda pursued that limits freedom and violates the constitution is not going to get the cooperation that you seek. In fact, I would argue that the constitutional shortcuts of the Obama agenda may well be pushing the government closer to failure. Another trillion+ dollar expenditure will certainly increase our dependency on China.

So sometimes blocking the ability of the government to carry out ill-advised schemes may be (in my opinion) in the best interest of the country.

My discussion above was not intended to be offensive. While I honor your service, my point above is that military experience does not necessarily translate into unchallengable civics lessons. What made me uncomfortable was your implication that people who are blocking the agenda of the current left-wing government are unpatriotic and perhaps “attempting to destroy our form of government.” I found that to be offensive.

Opinion :I like your thinking. Re-inventing Government is the answer. The Constitution gives us a roadmap and a process for change (Article V). (IMHO) Thinking “Party” vice “American” just won’t get us there.

Change, even “Change you can believe in”, needs to be measured, targeted and wise or else it is a disaster. Putting everything into a reform package even when it is unwise or leaving things out (because you don’t want to take on a particular interest like trial lawyers), can be dangerous at worst or ineffective at best.

To use your boat analogy, if your solution to the hole is to drill one on the other side, so that the water has a place to drain out will probably cause the boat to sink faster.

@A PW County Resident
APWCR, I certainly agree with everything you said in principle.

Remember the “change” that created our Country. It was violent, radical, dramatic, and resulted in a new “experimental” form of Government that, so far, worked out pretty good. I believe we have an obligation to engage in civil disobedience (following Gandhi, King, the founding fathers, etc.) rather than acquiesce to an unjust Government or policy (to borrow from Thoreau). Our very existence as a Country is predicated on this philosophy. To argue otherwise it so perhaps say correcting slavery or giving women the right to vote or perhaps equal rights could wait “a bit longer”. Civil disobedience was the catalyst for all of these changes.

Sometimes, change does need to be measured, targeted, etc., etc., etc., and sometimes we just need to do the right thing… now. I believe that it’s time for financial and health care reforms… now… for example. I also believe that if Obama had not made some bold moves (in some cases, continuing policies put in place by Bush at the end of his second term) we would be bankrupt (literally) as a Country and our condition would make the depression of the 30’s look like good times by comparison. M-H posted a video talking about the joys of small Government a couple of days ago that might be worth revisiting.

That’s just my opinion.

@kelly3406
Kelly, the easiest way never to offend is to remain silent. I’m afraid I can’t do that because (simply put) I love my Country too much to let offending you or anyone else cause me to remain silent. You (as a fellow veteran) should particularly appreciate the fact that veterans have earned the right to speak freely about our Country and its future. My friends on the wall down town would expect no less.

It’s just my opinion. I take no offense if you ignore it.

@Opinion
I am certainly not arguing about the basic, it is like the old saying “the devil is in the details”. So, for example, just because one is against a government run system doesn’t mean that the person is against reform. But try to say that you are against government competition (when they can print their own money, have no concept of profit or business) to compete with private industry upon which our capitalist economics are based and all of a sudden you are portrayed as not caring if poor people get insurance. That is disingenuous.

And many on here who speak against amnesty (which by the way I have never taken a position until I see all of the alternative) are portrayed as against any immigration reform and hate people from other countries. It all comes down to details and some of the junk in the stimulus package was not intended to provide any stimulus and there is much in the healthcare reform in the House that is objectionable, costly and many economist fear would not help and could hurt.

Too many times, both parties demonize especially when they are in power. My biggest fear from the election last year was the super majority. Without the need to give and take, usually bad decisions are made. Thank goodness so far it has been the democrats since we know from Will Rogers that they are not an organized party.

I remember reading a thing in a magazine about an Episcopalian who was touting how great the convention was this year because the people who provided opposition left the church. I really felt sorry for this person because they missed the point that organizations nead a diversity of thought.

sorry about some of the spelling

@A PW County Resident
You know, once again I agree in principle but not perhaps the details. I would rather be in the company of people with an opinion than not and value people with different opinions the most. I (like you, I suspect) like to understand all of the alternatives and freely admit that I have more questions than answers.

My gray hair has taught me that all things come in cycles (weather, the economy, Government philosophy). (IMHO) That’s good as it balances out liberal and conservative philosophies over time… as long as both sides are talking to one another. As in your Episcopalian example, if one side walks out we lose balance.

That’s just my opinion (until persuaded otherwise).

@Opinion
And I do think we have a similar approach to things even if we will undoubtedly disagree. It is refreshing to disagree with reason .

I once wrote a letter to the editor with some of the same thoughts as you–it must be the gray hair here too. My LTE was about my view that both parties have demons and angels (didn’t want to sound like Dan Brown) but that this country has been fortunate that most times the liberal persuasion was in charge when we needed it and the conservative persuasion was in charge when we needed to slow down a bit. The only thing I fret about is not the acrimony but the overwhelming amount of it. We have always had acrimony but I am not so sure that we have always had one or both parties ratcheting it up on every issue.

By the way, Wolfie nicknamed me Rez to save on keystrokes. I look forward to some interesting debates with you. I believe that we will agree on some and disagree on other things but I believe they will always be respectful.

I don’t post often wishing to look over the comments and coming to a conclusion after I have considered what people say, but I do read the subjects everyday. I try never to make it personal but as a human, I may fail. That’s why we invented apology.

@A PW County Resident
Likewise, I assure you.

Get a room.

Cong.Connolly doesn’t have a good track record with women. First as Chairman of the FXBOCS he passed over the first female police chief for investigating his Felony hit and run case too thoroughly also involving a female motorist. He has a well-known history of blowing up on his staff,particularly women. His staffer allegedly assaulted a woman in his office.on Nov.5th. The Congressman according to eyewitnesses threatened a woman with arrest for simply touching his arm(Connolly’s staff is spinning this) there are photos.What female will be the next victim of Congressman Connolly’s bullying behavior. Maybe anger management is needed for our Congressman.

Gerry vs. the Police

One of the most underreported parts of the Gerry Connolly Hit and Run story is what happened with the Fairfax police after they dared charge Connolly.

After the Hit and Run on Friday, police with the license plate in hand, went over to Gerry’s house Saturday morning. In the Hit and Run stories, you will notice Gerry always talking about how he “found” the dent on Saturday. By “found” he means after the police knocked on his door asking about it.

At the same time this was going on Fairfax was going through a search for a new Chief of Police. When the outgoing Chief left, he recommended Suzanne Devlin to be acting Chief during the search. Suzanne was a well respected officer, and had overwhelming support to take over the department internally. However, sources tell me Devlin refused to treat Connolly any different during the Hit and Run investigation which left Gerry absolutely livid. Gerry began a big push to interview those outside the department as the hit and run case was proceeding-.

While Acting Chief, Suzanne was also getting Gerry’s ire for her outstanding press. She was even featured in the Washington Post for taking down a male attacker twice her size at Dulles Airport.

But at the end of the day in Fairfax, qualifications don’t mean anything when Gerry Connolly is angry that he was charged with a crime. Suzanne was passed over for the position.

Most important- Gerry did NOT recuse himself from selecting a new Police Chief while he was facing criminal charges that the police recommended. But the Fairfax Police learned a valuable lesson- not everyone is equal under the law in Fairfax County.

M-H… the high road is the road less traveled; however, you are in better company on your journey.

@Elena

Elena- The Medicare Prescription Drug Program is a federal government program. While I agree with you in the staggering cost, to those who pay taxes, President Obama must believe it is working. Otherwise, he would gid rid of programs that aren’t working. That was what he said. Hopefully, what he said were not ‘just words’.

Umm “Gerry the Volcano”, you may want to at least give credit to the site you plagiarized your entire post from!

http://notlarrysabato.typepad.com/doh/2008/05/hit-and-runpoli.html

Also, the issue at hand is whether a frustrated and angry tea person got out of hand and tried to bully a congressman. From what I’ve seen from out of control town hall meetings, THAT would not surprise me. Whether or not he was involved with some prior infraction has NOTHING to do with this particular incident on Capitol hill.

Moon-howler, I have been enjoying immensely your recent threads. Being what some might term an “old-timer”, there are a few responding posts which make me chuckle with good humor. That business about “bullying a congressman” is one of those. One might get the impression that those in the modern-day “tea parties” are on the verge of becoming some raucous, law-breaking, and perhaps even violent political movement. Hah! Some of you are probably too young to remember very clearly the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. I witnessed a crowd on the streets of Chicago in 1968 trying to bully an entire national convention of the Democratic Party! I remember political bombings and other acts of domestic terrorism. Come on, folks. Compared to our political history in other, not so distant, periods, those tea party (and townhall) encounters have been political peanuts. Totally tame by comparison. Effective though, if you count the number of Dems who voted nay on the House bill yesterday. Almost as effective as the protests years ago which helped to turn an entire nation away from an on-going war.

Not that I don’t agree that tea party and townhall participants should show proper respect and deference for the laws. But I think that “Opinion” left one very important factor out of his thought-provoking assessment. There are far too many elected officials who do not know how to listen or who appear to refuse to do so except when re-election campaigns are just around the corner. What more basic right can we as a people have than that of our elected representatives — and I emphasize “representatives” — giving us an audience and doing so seriously and fully?

As I watched the various townhall meetings on health reform around the country some months ago, I saw a difference in many of them. The ones which ended in a bit of a dustup were largely those in which the representative or senator began by reading from a prepared script and acting as if that script was an unassailable sort of Bible. It reflected in those speakers a lack of understanding that people in this modern era have access to multiple and almost immediate sources of information and that they might be just a bit insulted and reactive if you make like they are uninformed rubes needing only to shut up and listen to the Washington “gospel.” I think that many of these same speakers failed to realize what kind of response you would get from Americans if you populated your meetings knowingly with union personnel and if these union personnel become equated with some knuckle-cracking goon squad ready to take on the constituents.

By contrast, those town meetings which truly worked were the ones in which smart representatives and senators sat back and told their constituents: “I’m here to listen. You do the talking.” I can’t go through an entire list; but I can point out a couple of the worst performances. You could tell from the look on the face of that congressman from South St. Louis County (where the union guy actually slugged someone outside the meeting place) that the chap was totally out of his element. He had absolutely no clue how to handle a meeting in which contentiousness was present. There were others. Arlen Specter, for instance, was also clueless. He apparently thought that his status as a prominent US Senator would be quite enough to quell the spirit of an upset crowd of constituents. But, perhaps, the worst, was that AARP video seen across the nation. That is the one where the female moderator walked out of the meeting simply because she could not abide a contrary audience wanting desperately to discuss the nuts and bolts of their concerns.

And I would mention those representatives who ran away in absolute fright from holding any townhall meetings at all or held only meetings which were tightly controlled as to admission. From the complaints I saw on the blogs, Gerry Connolly appears to have been in that category. Gerry Connolly got a reputation for running, which may have been a factor in the incidents or alleged incidents on the Hill this past week. Now, I know that some will say that the speakers at some of those townhall meetings had no chance because the attendees were chanting or shouting them down. Perhaps. But consider the possibility that this also might have been a response to a growing sense that these men and women in Washington often appear to talk at you instead of listening.

We have to be very careful that we do not move from a position of criticizing the views of those in the tea parties and other dissent groups in the direction of an advocacy of shutting them out somehow from the public forum. The political winds always change at some point. Someday those who are most adamant about denigrating the tea party people will surely wind up in a position similar to theirs. Do you want to set a precedent? During those raucous protests in the Vietnam War era, I , as a person in uniform, was sometimes a target of protesters. I was even advised not to wear the uniform in public in some places in order to avoid nasty confrontations. This as a war veteran who was sent home on a medevac plane and spent eight months in a military hospital. Did I think those protesters should have been swept up and cast into some distant and captive oblivion? Hell, no. As much as I disagreed with them at the time, I had to admit that they were doing something very, very American: exercising (the domestic terrorist acts excepted) their constitutional rights. Tolerance of dissent, even loud and irritating dissent, is what we Americans are about. Like “Opinion” I have spent many years in other cultures…in fact, mostly in cultures where townhall meetings and “teas parties” could put you behind bars and sometimes worse. Lack of tolerance is not a pretty thing to witness.

@Wolverine
Wolverine, when you’re right… you’re right… on so many points. I particulary agree with, ” But I think that “Opinion” left one very important factor out of his thought-provoking assessment. There are far too many elected officials who do not know how to listen or who appear to refuse to do so except when re-election campaigns are just around the corner. What more basic right can we as a people have than that of our elected representatives — and I emphasize “representatives” — giving us an audience and doing so seriously and fully?”

Thank you for your service.

Wolverine,
I appreciate what you are saying about “winds of change”. It was not long ago that people were protesting the wars in Iraq and torture by our government. However, I don’t recall the same type of backlash based on misinformation and distortion by elected leaders and some media outlets. Were it not for brave senators like John McCain and Lindsey Grahm, Rumsfield would still be in power. I think there IS a key difference in these protests.

The difference being one based on “I hate Obama no matter what he does” factor. I will keep sounding like a broken record, but where was the outrage over Bush’s 800 BILLION spent on the medicare prescription drug plan that offered NO way to pay for its creation? Almost every republican voted for it and only several democrats. Why wasn’t this considered a governmental socialized take over of insurance?!!!! Where were the tea partiers then???!!!

Furthmore, protests happend AFTER the event went bad, these protests are happening BEFORE any legislation has EVEN passed!!!

Elena :Furthmore, protests happend AFTER the event went bad, these protests are happening BEFORE any legislation has EVEN passed!!!

The time for political protest, in order to be effective, is during the development of the policy or law. To wait until the legislation has passed means that people’s opinions are meaningless. Changing a law or a policy takes forever but influencing the law or policy during deliberation is immediate.

What has been happening is that “leaks” have been provided as trial balloons. If there is no organized or impassioned response by the electorate, elected officials assume that the proposal is okay.

Why no great outcry about the prescription drug plan? The american people were not tuned into something that did not affect them personally and the people that it may have affected did not raise the american consciousness. Complete health care reform does affect every american so there will be passions.

Elena, as a fiscal conservative I might add another thought to your comment about the Bush spending during the last years of his term. Some of us were so stunned by it all that we didn’t quite know how to react or what to say. As the deficit piled up, I remember saying to myself: “What the Hell is this? What do I say now?!” Politics are a darned funny and often confusing thing. It’s sort of like your mama giving you all kinds of loving and filling you with delicious cakes and pies and, all of a sudden, you get a whack on the behind without quite realiizing what you did to deserve it. Oh, well, it makes for excitement in life …and some good blogging opportunities. And I think Bush did suffer from it in the end in the eyes of those who had supported him. That low approval rating wasn’t just Democrats. And Obama rode it to power.

I love the AARP endorsement of the health care reform bill. What they don’t mention is that they sell supplemental Medicare insurance, so massive cuts in Medicare=More Sales for AARP! Ain’t life grand!

A PWCR is right – what’s the point of protesting something after it is enacted? So everyone should stay silent until Congress passes some legislation? In that case what point is there to even contacting your representative – if you should wait until after he/she has voted? It makes no sense.

Elena,
You want to know what the “tea party” types did because of the Drug Plan? They didn’t vote for Republicans in the next election. They stayed home. When your “small government” party is acting like the opposition, why vote for them?

Apparently you don’t read conservative blogs. The outcry was huge. As to where the protesters were…well, it takes time for people unaccustomed to it, to organize. The Tea Party movement and the 9/12 Project coalesced at about the same time and through those networks, were able to organize. THAT’S where the protesters were…getting ready.

Heck, until Glenn Beck started the 9/12 Project-We Surround Them, it didn’t occur to many that they COULD get organized and protest.