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THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT

Clamoring for Quasimodo?

by Ed Ross

August 3, 2009

Things haven’t been going well for President Obama lately. Conservative columnists, talk-show hosts, and bloggers are having a field day chronicling the president's fall from the clouds above Mount Olympus. His poll numbers, if not his ambition, have returned to Earth as he has failed to effectively sell his healthcare plan, insinuated a cop was a racist before he had the facts, and delegated too much responsibility for crafting critical legislation to fragmented Democrats in Congress.

With Obama's presidency and the Democratic agenda on the line, members of Congress return home in August to meet with their constituents. They'll encounter groups of voters who aren't happy with what Democrats have been doing. It’s America’s growing discontent that’s the real news story this summer. Expect an all out effort by liberals in the media and entertainment to ridicule the voices of opposition.

In office only six-and-a-half months, many of Obama’s critics are saying his presidency already is beginning to come apart at the seams. Whether that’s just wishful thinking or an accurate description depends on how well Obama recovers from his recent missteps and gauges the mood of the nation. To do that, he’ll have to do a lot more than invite a couple of people to the White House for a beer, read the polls, and rely on the mainstream media; he needs to stop lecturing Americans like a Harvard professor and listen to them.

The president and liberal Democrats in Congress, like Nancy Pelosi, however, have shown few signs they're in a listening mode. Since January 20 they have interpreted their victories as an overwhelming mandate from the American people to “transform America.” Indeed, that was Obama’s stated objective during the campaign. But while many liberal voters believe America needs transformed, most Americans do not.

Just as they aren’t ready to swap a healthcare system more than 80 percent of them are happy with for a radically different and uncertain one, they aren’t ready to swap an America they’re happy with for a different one. They don’t want the federal government running the banks, the auto manufacturers, and the energy and healthcare sectors of the US economy. They don’t want it to redistribute wealth, micromanage their everyday lives, and limit their personal freedom. Despite all of America’s warts and problems, they still believe it’s a great country and the land of opportunity. They want to keep it that way.

These Americans, genuinely concerned about the direction the country is headed, will confront Democrats that support Obama's proposals at their town-hall meetings and local offices in the coming days. They'll let their representatives know in no uncertain terms what they think about what Congress is doing. Some of them will be loud and angry. Many liberal media and entertainment personalities, as they did with Tea-Party protests on April 15 and July 4, will talk about them as if they were ignorant Parisians besieging Notre Dame Cathedral clamoring for Quasimodo.

Conservatives in particular are liberal's favorite target. They love to portray them as Neanderthals, rednecks, and dunces. Their number one target since the 2008 election has been Sarah Palin and, by inference, anyone who supports her.

On July 27, leftist comedian Bill Maher, appearing on CNN’s “Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer, described any country that could consider electing Sarah Palin to the presidency as a “stupid country.” Liberals like Maher and David Letterman go after Palin because by discrediting her they discredit people who think like her--conservatives. Ridiculing conservatives, they mistakenly believe, discourages people from listening to them and reduces the chances they'll prevail in political battles and elections.

Conservatives, however, are not the dumb minority many liberals like to describe them as. In a June 15, 2009, Gallop poll 40 percent of Americans interviewed describe their political views as conservative, 35 percent as moderate, and just 21 percent as liberal, numbers that have changed little since 1992. Moderates by definition are in the middle but tend to lean in one direction or the other, which means more than half of all Americans are either conservative or lean toward the conservative side of the political spectrum.

Under normal circumstances, all this plays itself out during election cycles. Just as Republicans overreached and were voted out of offices, the same likely will happen to Democrats in 2010 and 2012 if they continue down the path they are on. And if Obama doesn’t guide the ship of state back toward the center, he’s likely to be a one-term president.

What makes this summer different is that millions of Americans fear that 2010 and 2012 will be too late; that the massive changes Democrats’ healthcare, energy, and other legislation will bring can’t be undone. A government-run healthcare system that destroys the private healthcare insurance industry won’t go away under a Republican president or Congress. An energy policy that leaves the US economy in shambles will take decades to reverse. Just as Great Britain was permanently changed by the disintegration of the British Empire and post-World War II social policies, America will permanently change. It will be a different country.

Perhaps these fears are unfounded. What’s certain is that many on the left want to fundamentally change America, and they'll attempt to discredit and ridicule their opponents. They’re not the majority of Americans, but with Democrats in control of the White House and the Congress this is their best opportunity to achieve their goal. A lot of ‘stupid’ Americans this summer will try to prevent that.