Mobs, like children, have tantrums and fits of fury

by David Grand
August 12, 2009

That Greek philosopher, Euripides, sure nailed it. For it's a fitting description of the raucous behavior at some of the town-hall meetings.

What with the way they were jumping out of their seats like a startled frog and hooting and hollering at the top of their lungs in an effort to keep those on the platform from being heard, you've have thought their very birthrights were being threatened by health reform.

At any moment I half expected to see someone in the audience, who was speaking out in favor of a government run, single-payer option, getting clobbered with a sign or fist by an enraged opponent. No doubt, it was only the police presence that prevented the verbal confrontations from becoming a free-for-all.

But my biggest fear is, that with grim-faced gunslingers now showing up at the meeting sites in increasing numbers, their guns could go off accidentally or on purpose, hitting someone fatally.

And were that to happen, it would send shock waves across the nation that would register on the Richter scale, and possibly incite riots in the streets and cause more incidents of violence.

Now, in my trying to understand what motivates the anti-health reformers to be as enraged as a wounded bull in the arena, I've come up with these unscientific, off the top of my head theories:

First, that this hot-button issue has provided an escape valve for all of their anxieties and discontentment over the direction the country is going; and their feeling like they're being dumped on at every turn by an uncaring, ever-growing government in Washington, and which is intruding into their lives like never before.

Second, that many of 'em haven't bothered to acquaint themselves with the pertinent facts about what health reform would or wouldn't do. But even if they had checked out the facts, they apparently still opted to follow Mark Twain's advise: "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

Third, that the reason for their puppet-like movements (jumping up and down and shaking their heads vigorously) is, in large part, because their actions are being manipulated by master puppeteers--a la Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and self serving politicians like Sen. Chuck ("my finger is in the dike to stop health reform") Grassely (R-Iowa)--who know which strings to pull which way and how hard in order to raise the emotions of their followers to a fever pitch.

Lastly, that though most of the protestors at the town-hall meetings wouldn't fess up to it, the underlying reason for a good number of them getting so lathered up over health reform is, that they can't and never will be able to accept having a black man as president, even if he is half white (or even if he was three-fourths).

To end, I would say, that while I find all the fuming and fussing over health reform disheartening, it pales by comparison to what I witnessed during the tumultuous 1960's.

And I would recommend to those groups in favor of having a provision in the pending health reform legislation calling for a single-payer option, to emulate the successful, nonviolent ( at least on their part) tactics used by the protestors in the various movements back then; such as, public marches, picketing, sit-ins, rallies, and petition drives.

That's the best way to counter all the hogwash and boldface lies about health reform flooding the airwaves and in Congress. Plus, marching is good exercise.