I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about what’s going on in the health care reform debate right now since it’s headlining every media outlet in the country as we speak. Long story short, members of Congress — and even the President — have been holding public town halls to discuss health care reform and allay fears that it will screw up health care for people who already have insurance. Some people don’t like what they’re hearing, so they’re screaming down Representatives and Senators, suggesting that they are evil Nazi-devils and calling them rights-trampling cronies. This last insult comes from an uppity bearded man who accosted Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA, who until very recently was actually a Republican), at a town hall in Lebanon, PA earlier this week:
A few things jump out in this footage of the confrontation. First, Arlen Specter sounds a lot like Jimmy Stewart. Second, the audience member putting up the stink is really, really upset — but not about health care per se. He’s furious that he didn’t get to ask a question during the town hall — so he yells that he is “going to speak my mind” and that he “was lied to” because he is “not a lobbyist with all kind [sic] of money to stuff in your pocket so that you can cheat the citizens of this country.”
In other words, his rage seems to go beyond the details of health care reform and into the general failure of our political system. That’s important.
To be sure, there’s a certain type of person who you can wind up and point in the direction of any institution — unions, corporations, the government, you name it — and they’ll happily rant about how said entity is uniformly corrupt and responsible for all the evils of the world. These kinds of people will always be around, and they will always be useful representatives for lobbying groups and advocacy efforts that want to make a splash by way of public outrage.
But you have to wonder whether these attack dogs don’t have additional leverage now because of the broader economic environment. Think about what the Obama Administration and Congress are asking of voters. They are essentially saying “trust us to rebuild the health care system” at a time when our institutions and their administrators have failed to manage our economy. Almost 7 million jobs have been lost since the start of this recession. Official unemployment is almost certainly going to hit 10 percent, and if you account for every American who currently wants work and doesn’t have it (instead of just people who have looked for a job in the past month, which is the criteria for the official unemployment numbers you read about in the media) we have an unemployment rate of over 18 percent.
This is bad–and worse, there’s a distinct class differential to the severity of this recession. Last month the official unemployment rate in construction was 18.2 percent, and in manufacturing, 12.6 percent. The July unemployment rate in the finance and insurance industries? A measly 5.7 percent.
Now I ask you: who do you think image-conscious politicians are more likely to showcase in a town hall — the plant worker or the banker? The plant worker, of course — problem is, he’s exactly who has the most right to be upset over his economic fortunes right about now. Cue shouting match.
Look, I’m not saying that the Obama Administration has totally dropped the ball on the economy — in fact, I think the stimulus was important to stop the bleeding. But blue-collar and rural Americans are seeing their colleagues lose their jobs while banks have been bailed out by the government, and they’re seeing their lifeblood industries whither while employment levels on Wall Street do pretty darn well, all things considered. Can you blame them for being suspicious of the federal government and its promises to guide health care reform appropriately?
I should make clear that I don’t think these people are right to harbor such distrust of the current health care reform effort, nor is every town hall agitator an out-of-work blue-collar Joe. Current health care proposals are almost certainly going to improve our system and troublemakers may well be more united by partisan affiliation than by occupation. Moreover, this recession took off under the Bush Administration, which means that the “guys who got us into this mess” argument doesn’t quite hold. But it’s understandable why some people might be wary of the institutions that presided over our economic meltdown.
And if I can understand it, so can a lot of other people. In fact, a new Gallup poll shows that 34 percent of Americans have grown more sympathetic to the town hall protesters’ claims by watching them in action. Further, 57 percent of Americans think that the protests stem from a fear of having higher health care bills–a salient issue for everybody in the midst of a recession.
You have to wonder: if the Obama Administration had done more for the economy — if it had pushed for a larger stimulus, prioritized the revitalization of manufacturing and the creation of jobs to the extent that it has health care reform, and generally made a larger show of coupling blue-collar aid with bank bail-outs — would the town hall protesters be more easily dismissed as rogue kooks?
Again, right-wing lobbyists will never run out of radicals to trot in front of the cameras; but we clearly have an atmosphere of tension and mistrust to deal with — one that goes beyond health policy, and one that might have been exacerbated by the Obama Administration’s prioritization of health reform over the stabilization of the labor market. I think it’s fair to say that health care reform may have been a whole lot easier if it had been pursued at a time when the average citizen wasn’t feeling so much economic pain–or when he or she were more convinced that the government was working hard to help ease that pain. As it is, the town hall protesters have become more than protesters, they’ve become the face of a bubbling dissatisfaction that’s only now punctuating itself around health care reform.
Niko Karvounis
Niko Karvounis' writing has appeared in popular publications like Slate, Mother Jones, and AlterNet, as well as specialty journals such as Medicare Patient Management and Theoretical Criminology. His work has been cited by the New York Times, National Journal, The American Prospect, ...
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NiPepp says:
"I think it’s fair to say that health care reform may have been a whole lot easier if it had been pursued at a time when the average citizen wasn’t feeling so much economic pain–or when he or she were more convinced that the government was working hard to help ease that pain."
Could have just sneaked it right through right? Those idiots out there would have never said a word if they were all fat and happy right?
Those Americans out there are really stupid aren't they?
Niko Karvounis says:
Nope. Just that, were the economy better and the Obama Administration more prominently committed to employment, industry and wage reforms, fewer people might be harboring disaffection with politics and government--and more would be comfortable with the idea that our political institutions could initiate positive, practical changes that would beneficially impact the little guy. Changes like health care reform.
Rose says:
What the American people are objecting to is threefold in my opinion:
1. The government is notorious for not being able to run anything, examples, US Post Office, Social Security, Medicare.
2. We are knee deep in debt and adding another trillion dollars to it is just insanity. (Our health care is just fine, thank you)
3. No one, including the President and congress, seems to know what the system is or what we can expect from it.
Clearly, this is another botched attempt at converting our country to socialism, led by a man who is eloquent but ill equipped to manage anything, much less the leadership of the free world
Angelou says:
the ones responsible for the mobs and terrorising people at townhall meetings are political terrorists such as sarah palin and rush limbaug> sarah uses her own handicaped child and elderly parents as pawns to advance her political agenda on death panels> if she can do that to her own family do you really think she cares about anything or anyone other than herself?
tdub says:
Probably so, but the bottom line is the institutions that got us into trouble could only be controlled from more chaos by stricter regulation and the same is needed for the health care industry. What is it about the foolishness and blindness of people to distrust the very government that is trying to reign in the wanton destruction that private institutions have heaped upon the middle and lower class. The "outrage" would be easier to understand-if the fuel of anger and panic wasn't being thrown on the fire by corporate and the incessent right wing lie machine.
tdub says:
These kind of quote just sickens me..."Clearly, this is another botched attempt at converting our country to socialism"
The reason we are heading toward more regulation (OK, righties, fill in your favorite fear termed lie here) "socialism" "communism" "Nazi-ism" is because while you were taking your blissful 8 year nap under the Bush regime, the PRIVATE institutions were running amock, bankrupting the ocuntry at the expense of the middle class. The only way to control this rape of the values of the nation is to keep things in check with government oversight. The medical/insurance industry is doing the same thing--gouging the citizenry and denying them fair, affordable coverage and treatment and someone needs to STOP the gouging. What solution do you have? Less regulation? Let the free market regulate itself? Yeah, that worked WONDERS the last decade. Good grief, the right wing fear and greed machine marches on. You got to hand it to them. They keep their facist, greedy message on point all the time.
Hope Agape says:
I think the last poll numbers I saw stated that about 24% of the people trust the Government. Also about 20% trust the news media. So perhaps those that are now protesting remember a day when you could trust both.
I agree with you that the protests are more then just the healthcare issue. Right now given the current congress I think you can pick your poison, 10% unemployment, 1 year 1.4 trillion dollar deficit, embarrassing foreign policy, Health care reform, Porkulus spending bill, Cap and trade...
What's the old expression "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more. "
Niko, you seem to be an intelligent person so let me ask you a question.
If you owned a company and employed 200 people and needed to hire 5 more to reduce over time.
would you
a) hire the 5 people
b) Would you first need to know how much each person cost ?
Before you answer consider the variables that the government has imposed.
1) Cap and trade means that you will be paying more for production of each individual and your lawyers and COO are still trying to figure that annual cost .
2) The omnibus spending bill and Porkulus are adding to the deficit and the current administration is going to raise your taxes and you don't yet know what that will cost.
3) If the Government passes Health care reform each employee will cost you more and you don't know what that will cost.
So will you choose a or b ?
Joe says:
Niko,
Really? Obama to "Blame"? That is exactly the kind of b.s. rhetoric that is behind this whole mess. There is a huge differnce between a hive of bees and a stirred hive of bees. Yes, the county is full of bees who will try to protect their honey (work, family, way of life, etc.), but they won't go on the attack unless provoked. One might expect a sting here and there, but not a coordinated attack to severely hurt and injure the perceived enemy.
What we have at the town hall meetings is a coordinated effort by the right wing of our nation who see Obama as the enemy and who provoke the bees out there to go on a full scale attack. (Rose is one of those ignorant people who really believe that Obama is a socialist born in Kenya out to destroy America. They warp reality to their worldview instead of adjusting their worldview to reality.)
It is not Obama's "fault" for choosing to move forward with a promised agenda at this time...no matter WHEN he went to reform HC, the right would do the same thing it is doing now - the timing doesn't matter, they would find something (death panels, for example) that would put fear into the bees and cause them to do what they are doing now. The blame falls squarely on the red meme mindset that mires our country in mythic thinking (the bible is errant truth) and childish beliefs (my god is better than your god)>
You might as well as said it was Obama's fault FOR EVERYTHING that is has not "been committed to" enough. Your argument is truly absurd... you'd be better to stick to facts that conjecuring about this and that. I could easily right a piece that blames Bush for putting the economy in such a poor spot that Obama would have to deliver a Superhuman performance as Commander in Chief to get us out of it. Title: "Is Bush to Blame for the Town Hall Chaos?" and followed with with a logical argument, but just as fallacious and ridiculous as this one when compared to the real complexity of the issue at hand. THat is a sad, sad, sad...and why Internet journalism like this is a bad thing in the world today.
Mason Lerner says:
I really enjoyed this, Niko.
Dado says:
The premise of the piece is presumptive. It assumes that everyone would agree that what we're seeing is "chaos".
Point number three from Rose, below, captures what I also would say; "No one, including the President and congress, seems to know what the system is or what we can expect from it."
When we ask about the language we see in HR 3200, our Reps, mine included, cannot or will not explain what it means, they can only say what they've been told to say that it does not mean.
The President is supposedly the leader. Leaders, when confronted with situations like this, gather their forces and devise a plan. In this situation, to convincingly lay out their position. He has not led. To blame "the organizing" of the electorate is preposterous and tinged with not a little irony in that what he is lamenting is exactly what he came of age doing.
Alisa says:
I will only say this - you've got this right.