Asks the girl in the movie "The Wild One" starring Marlon Brando. "What do you got?" is the reply. In much the same vein, I am sure that the Left is wondering why
there are protests against the policies of the Obama administration. After all, the Democrats just want what is best (in their minds) for the country. They want universal health care for all, and an equalization of wealth distribution as a way to make everyone happier. How can anyone be against these things?
I think that the biggest problems that Democrats and the Left have, is their lack of imagination as to what can go wrong. They seem to have an unthinking belief in the efficacy of government, even as they railed against it during the Bush administration. Haliburton, Katrina, Bernie Madoff, Enron, the sub-prime crash, the War on Terror, would all have been efficiently accomplished if only Democrats would have been in control. Their willingness to put on blinders to the current situation demonstrates their basic ideology that government can only function when supervised by those of their similar belief system.
Never mind that the first actions of the solidly Democratic Congress was to pass the Omnibus spending bill that was rife with pork. Nor the "Emergency" Stimulus bill that was nothing more than a spoils system for Democrat Party supporters, and was supposed to prevent unemployment from running over 8%. It was passed without anyone having even read the bill, nor was it alone in that a 300 page addendum was added to the Cap and Tax bill at 3 a.m.on the day of its vote. The fact that the stimulus bill is being touted as successful when only about 12% has spent is further proof that they don't have a clue. Evidence that Germany and France are recovering without outrageous deficit spending is quietly ignored, as Joe Biden (the Gift that keeps on Giving) is claiming "Saving or Creating X amount of jobs" without any basis in reality. Throw in Rep. Conyers asking why he should read the bill when it takes two lawyers and more time and interest than he has along with the arrogance of Democratic officeholders toward anyone who disagreed with their beneficence, and you quickly had a separation from the people that they are supposed to represent.
The Auto bailouts provided about $80 billion dollars that disappeared into bankruptcy court and the unions that supported Democrats. Obama "firing" the head of GM further shows that there are no limits on the power that this administration is willing to use.
Then came the Town Hall meetings on health care. Or, health insurance reform as it is now known. This is probably due to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry has pledged $150 million to selling Obama's plan. (If the insurance industry had been earlier with putting up money, would we now have the need to rage against Big Pharma?) Having displayed an arrogance that they alone knew how to solve the problem, Democrats at first sold themselves on the notion of providing insurance for 47 million uninsured. Never mind that at last weeks Joint session of Congress Obama suddenly, and without explanation lowered that number to only 30 million. (Look, we already removed 17 million from the ranks of the uninsured). But it was when they started tinkering with the whole system, that people became concerned. Obama's lack of credibility on the problem, only exacerbated the concern. (Health Care reform will not raise your costs, nor , , , etc.) Everyone knows that he can't do what he is promising, but he seems to believe that we won't notice.
Then when the third in line to be President, and her majority leader decided to call anyone who disagrees with her UnAmerican, that was probably the breaking point. There were no explanations of why the Democrats were right, it was only disparaging remarks (tea baggers, Brown Shirts, Nazis, racists, etc.) that showed a complete ignorance of what the country was thinking. The other interesting thing, was that the Democrats seem to be operating off the assumption that there is only one way to solve the problem. Theirs. Never mind that in such a complex system, the probability of one solution is about nil.
Couple this arrogance with the outrageous deficits that Obama is running up, and people have every reason to be concerned. But their concerns are usually defelected by assertions that they can't be serious because they weren't concerned when George Bush ran up deficits. Maybe, but maybe it is the speed that the deficit has grown in such a short period of time that is concerning. There is no concern about fiscal responsibility anymore, instead, it seems to just be a cost of doing business. Never mind that our Chinese financiers are becoming nervous, we can solve the problem by printing more money. The funny thing is, that most of the Democrats in Congress have been there so long that they remember the high inflation rates of the late '70s and early '80s. when the news stories were all about the impact of inflation on old folks with fixed incomes. Their lack of concern would be considered criminal, but they are relying on the defense of stupidity, which seems very credible at the moment.
The Democrats had the opportunity to demonstrate that they could govern efficiently and effectively without the corruption of the Republicans. Instead, what they have shown is that they don't care about corruption if it is done by Democrats, and they don't care what the people say, they only care about the unions and such organizations as ACORN and the Center for American Progress. Those constituencies are extremely limited, and are not sufficient to maintain a governing coalition unless the populace remains unconcerned.
Guess what? The population is concerned, and they are rebelling against everything that the Democrats got.
