The Rage Is Not About Health Care

[collinge]

The Rage Is Not About Health Care Frank Rich writes in the NYTimes: "If Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play. It’s not happenstance that Frank, Lewis and Cleaver — none of them major Democratic players in the health care push — received a major share of last weekend’s abuse. When you hear demonstrators chant the slogan “Take our country back!,” these are the people they want to take the country back from."

[rosabel]

I agree, very scary The Tea Party movement includes Tom Tancredo an old anti-immigration, English first zealot. Connections have also been established with Operation Rescue and militia movements. When they keep saying it's time to "reload and repeal" on healthcare or show up armed at the President's speaking events I take it as a veiled threat against a man who has been under heavy secret Service protection since the day he announced.

[Henrieta]

Tancredo links Why is he going on and on about Jim Crow literacy tests when well educated demographic groups skewed heavily in favor of Obama, a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

[erich]

Operation Rescue links Militia movement link

[giger]

Thinly veiled appeals to the same mind set that made up Dixiecrats (States Rights Party) in 1948.

[west]

Any group that selects Sarah (ballgag) Palin as their spokesperson, is not quite hitting on all cylinders. I listened to some of the interviews of the Teabaggers on NPR this morning and it was outlandish comments of things that had nothing to do with health care reform or were so far off the mark they just sounded ignorant.

[hotard]

The rage is about war and poverty and how they are linked. The rage could be directed toward the very wealthy. Instead, it is played out as you said - the teabaggers as being a threat to America's progress.

[Vinh]

Of course, the teabaggers should be non-violent and organize, but they are a crazy lot. I ignore them?

[Vonni]

They approve of violent tactics and claim the bullet thru the window etc. was all rumor. They are zealots which makes them scarey.

[Jacob]

I didn't have the right to comment YIKES I didn't know what you were talking about. Yes, it's gross. beyond gross

[sokolowski]

The many faces of rage... Continued unemployment and forced "under employment" Inability for small businesses to secure loans Under utilized home refinancing options No increased cost of living benefits for Social Security and related government programs Decreased access to foreign medication providers and forced use of generics by insurance companies ... to name a few.

[mashaw]

Our current administration got handed a country in ruins after x years of BushCo. Years of war-mongering and self-serving mercenary fiscal behavior to benefit the few at the expense of most of the nation - if not the world. And Obama gets the blame. I almost can't bear to watch.

[tubb]

I agree with you, lon, however... despite the Teabaggers' actions, I don't think the escalating rage is directed to any one element of our current administration. I look at it as a culmination of increasing anger and frustration caused by the sources you cited as well as the lack of an ability to see meaningful improvement for the masses. Some choose apathy, some choose "reload and repeal," and some (like me) are just trying to do the best they can with what is available while making a positive impact when and where possible. I don't like watching it either and though I feel like America has been and is losing ground I still have hope for brighter days. Without collective American interest and ingenuity those brighter days will take even longer to be realized.