It’s unprecedented what we’re seeing right now—politicians pitting themselves against the voters. The voters, for heavens’ sake. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have called the behavior of those worried voters who dare to make their voices heard against government-run healthcare “un-American.”
Let’s stipulate: The folks who show up at the town hall meetings are plenty upset—and scared, too. They sense that a thousand dangers lurking in as many unread pages of a massive healthcare bill. Personal dangers for themselves and their families. (Liberal maverick Nat Hentoff explains why he is afraid—very afraid.)
The people are angry. Yes. But their elected officials appear even angrier. And they’re angry at, off all people, the voters.
Maryland Senator Ben Cardin avows that his resolve to vote for government healthcare actually has been hardened by protests against it at one of his town hall meetings. Sheila Jackson Lee talks on her cell phone as a cancer survivor tries in vain to question her at another town hall meeting.
What I think we’re seeing is contempt for the voters—you know those faceless citizens who, in the name of doing their civic duty, turn up at the polls and provide our currently disgruntled officials with the cushy office, the large staff, and freedom from flying commercial—yes, those folks. I’m beginning to think that our elected officials have embraced the perks and forgotten about us.
The current debate about healthcare is one of the most important we’ll ever have. But I can’t help thinking that it is revealing something deeply wrong with how decisions are made in Washington, how people come to think of themselves when they come to Washington.
It’s as if Mr. Smith came to Washington and suddenly began to disdain the voter who sent him there. You know—the yokels back in some backwoods town where you can’t get a decent goat Gouda. Daily newspapers tend to reflect the values of their communities, and I can’t help but believe that Robin Givhan’s snobbish article on the lack of style of town hall protestors reflects the way Washington views “these people”—she did use the term “ugly American.” Here, Mr. and Mrs. America, is how you look to Washington’s elite (and quite possibly to your very own elected representative):
“By and large, the shouters are dressed in a way that underscores their Average Guy — or Gal — bona fides. They are wearing T-shirts, baseball caps, promotional polo shirts and sundresses with bra straps sliding down their arm. They wear fuchsia bandannas and “American-flag hankies wrapped around their skulls like sweatbands. A lot of them look as though they could be attending a sporting event and, as it turns out, the congressman is the opposing player they have decided to heckle. If not for the prohibition on signs and banners inside these meetings, one could well expect to see some of these volatile worker bees wearing face paint and foam fingers, albeit the highlighted digit would be one expressing foul displeasure rather than competitive rank or skill level.
“The elected officials stand in front of a lectern or roam the hall — making sure not to stray too far from the protective reaches of their security detail, just in case a yeller lets a right hook fly. At the town halls hosted by Sens. Arlen Specter and Claire McCaskill, both legislators dressed for business. Specter was in a dark suit and tie. McCaskill wore a chocolate brown jacket with a narrow standing collar. Sen. Ben Cardin wore a dark suit with a navy striped tie to his meeting with his health care mob. They all peered at the irate speakers in some combination of stoic disbelief, subdued annoyance and preternatural calm.”
Well, I’m so glad Specter, McCaskill, and Cardin were dressed so well!
We’re seeing these people for who they really are—and I hope you’re as put off as I am.
Some of our representatives have said they can’t be bothered to read the bill. I think that this is just the latest indication that they have too much staff, too much help, lives that are too easy. The health-care bill is staff-driven, and I am glad we’re finally seeing that our representatives have gotten too important to do any actual work. There is simply no need for a bill ever to be so long and so difficult. We declared our freedom from England is a few simple words. Healthcare is so important, we can’t afford to have a bill nobody has read.
Our elected officials should make it a point to pay more attention to us…or get ready to fly commercial. Hey, maybe both of those things would be an improvement.