Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Had Enough Yet?


How many people protested Obamacare in Washington last Saturday? Twenty thousand? A hundred thousand? A million? Two million? The Washington Post said there were “tens of thousands.” So did the New York Times. They got the memo from Democrat leaders worried that if 1-2 million showed up it would be a major PR victory for the right, so they did what they could to play numbers down. The UK’s Daily Mail said there were up to 2 million protesters there.

Watching the demonstration on C-SPAN, I was struck by who I was seeing. They looked like ordinary men and women 40-70 years old, some younger, some older, but they didn’t look like demonstrators I’ve seen there for decades. There were no dreadlocked anarchists, no angry minorities, no fat feminists, no flamboyant homosexuals. These were efficient, mind-your-own-business people who quietly keep everything running while others demand favors from government. I wondered what caused them to make signs and journey to Washington in huge numbers. Something’s happening out there. Something different. Something big.

The only thing these people want from government is to be left alone. While liberal baby boomers waxed nostalgic over Woodstock last month, they went to town hall meetings to question their congressmen and senators, worried that their government planned to take away their health insurance plans and force them into a government-controlled system. Unlike their hippie contemporaries, they didn’t go to Woodstock forty years ago to smoke weed and frolic naked in the mud. They went to work instead - bagging groceries, banging nails, mowing lawns, and saving money for their future.

Though Obama, Pelosi and Reid continue to deny it, they know government would ration their health care when they get older. They know a younger gangbanger or illegal immigrant would get treated before they would when they were 65, 75, or 85 even though they’re the ones who pay the bills. They know Obama lied in his speech last week when he said his alleged reforms “would not apply to those who are here illegally.” When they heard Congressman Joe Wilson shout back “You lie!” they jumped up in front of their television sets and cheered him.

As part of its effort to demonize Congressman Wilson, CNN sent a reporter to the demonstration, but it backfired. Marchers didn’t trust CNN and wouldn’t be used as stooges for left-wing propaganda, so they gathered behind the reporter and shouted “Tell the truth!” over and over. The anchor back in Atlanta was exasperated when her reporter in the field said: “There are people who very strongly support Congressman Joe Wilson - and many of them are right here.”

They were there all right - over a million of them - and they don’t get their news from CNN and the other alphabet networks. They get it online and from talk radio because the mainstream media doesn’t have complete control of news anymore.

These are people who know they’ve been paying higher premiums on their private health insurance plans for years because hospitals charge them more for health care. They haven’t liked it, but they’ve paid anyway. They pay because they know hospitals cannot otherwise function when government pays much less than it costs to deliver health care to poor and elderly patients on Medicaid and Medicare.

These are people who pay on both ends - with their taxes and with their premiums. They know that if Obamacare passes with a “public option,” the private health insurance they’ve been paying for will disappear and they won’t have any more choices. Government will decide what health care they get - and don’t get.

These are people who have been planning for their retirement while others have been living fast and loose. They know they can’t depend on Social Security or any other government program. They watched the “War on Poverty” waste trillions and paid the taxes that financed it. They watched their money go down the drain while they worked in PTAs, Scouts, Rotary clubs and churches without government assistance. They are the real community organizers - quite unlike the government-funded ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) types caught last week scheming to fund child prostitution with taxpayer money in Baltimore, Washington, DC, New York City and San Bernardino. Because President Obama did legal work for ACORN, CNN and the alphabet networks continue to ignore the story. Demonstrators, however, know about it anyway.

These people are the ants who worked, who took care of themselves, who laid up food for the winter while their grasshopper contemporaries flitted about “finding themselves” at Grateful Dead concerts and the like. Now they’re envisioning their old age as government would force it upon them, not as they planned it and worked for it all their whole lives. Obamacare is the final straw for them. These people have had enough - and there are millions of them.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

YES!!!!!

Anonymous said...

When one considers both sides of the aisle having ties to George Soros, the long-ignored ACORN scandal, open borders, cap & trade, & the utter arrogance of the entire body politic, there should be no encumbants for several election cycles. Oh, did I forget the quote of the day? "The keystone in the arch of socialism is medicine"-Vladimir Lenin. We now see the Alinsky-Cloward Pivin full court press every evening on the alphabet network news. Guess there's no need to enroll in Columbia when you can sit & watch it for nothing.

Anonymous said...

I agree, however the real truth is that Medicare cost is about 20% of my total coverage while it pays about 80%. If this could be balanced a little better I could almost imagine the system paying for itself. But I don't trust the government to do it right. So I will try to get by with what I have for now.
If liberals tax you it is called socialism. If the conservatives take it they call it doing business. Either way "Joe Average Guy" comes out on the short end.

Unknown said...

And another YES!! And Charlie Gibson says he hasn't even heard about the ACORN stories! Yet he made every effort to make Sarah Palin look uninformed in his snotty avuncular interview with her. So who is REALLY uninformed or informed only by his liberal views?

Geoff Diehl said...

Tom,
I'm trying to avoid using your forum as a place to mine political support, but I HAVE to relay a story from my door-to-door experience from this past Monday (9/14)... I was speaking to a resident in one of the 3 MA towns I would represent and she asked, "So, are you the embodiment of what I was watching this weekend in D.C.?"

I said that I'd been out talking to the towns all summer but, yes, I suppose she could consider my campaign an off-shoot of the sentiment that drove the "tens of thousands" to protest in Washington.

Just so you all know, my door-to-door list comprises a majority of Independents and I can say, confidently, that this is not manufactured - there is palpable relief on the faces of the people I see at each home when I tell them that I, along with others in Taxachusetts, are coming out of the woodwork to take back control of our towns, state and country.

Thank you, Tom, for moving the ball that much closer to the goal line with each article you write!

Laurie from Bartlett said...

Was at the DC Rally...it was the most amazing experience I've ever had in my life. There was so much goodwill and genuine passion for adhering to the Constitution. THAT is what this was about. The procession to the Capital had to start an hour early because the streets around Freedom Park were filled. We arrived and met up w/ active fellow patriots from all over NH. Our NH flag flew HIGH AND PROUD! God Bless America and God Bless all those who drove 15 and 24 hours straight to represent their concerns for this country! It was astounding!!!! It was grassroots! It was so the definition of America!!! WE THE PEOPLE!!! Laurie Pettengill Bartlett NH

Garnet said...

Please read September 2009 AARP Bulletin, page 12-16 article entitled: “The Hype, The Lies, The Facts- How to tune out the fear-mongering and misinformation and make sense of the health care reform debate.

Average American said...

Excellent post Tom! Alice, THAT is why that idiot Charlie Gibson is retiring, I just don't know why he wants to wait til the end of the year.

Here's a site you all might be interested in if you haven's seen it yet:
http://www.nhteapartycoalition.org/tea/nh-events/

Geoff, good luck in your run!

Laurie, thanks for representing NH down there. Wish I could have made it! I did see a "Live Free or Die sign though!

Tom McLaughlin said...

Anonymous 1:
Interesting quote from Lenin. Never heard that one.

Alice:
Charlie Gibson is on the way out anyway, to be replaced by Diane. "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." They're all clones. And when John Stossel announced he was leaving ABC, he was told: "Goodbye. You suck. You have found a much better home for your garbage reporting and backwards politics."

Jake Tapper will probably be next. People who think don't fit in there.

Geoff: Your posts are fine. Heck, you're like John the Baptist down there in the liberal desert. Must be lonely - like being a conservative public school teacher in Maine maybe.

Laurie:
Thanks for the pics, and thanks for driving down there. Maybe I'll meet you at a future event.

Garnet:
AARP is hemorrhaging members because they endorsed Obamacare. Their (former) rank and file know much more than their leadership. Why would I want to read their hype? They've been a liberal suck-up organization for years.

Leigh said...

Well written Tom!

Today I e-mailed Olympia Snowe. I let her know that we do not need government to make personal choices for people. I told her we do not need more government. I reminded her that the health care situation can be resolved through the private sector; using the ingenuity of individuals, community and business. We need to rely more on ourselves, churches, community organizations, neighbors, friends and family. I told her that I have been voting for her since I was young and for her husband also. I respectfully let her know that if she votes for the health care bill, I will never be able to vote for her again.

It is important that we let Senator Snowe know what we think.