'I'm as Mad as Hell, and I'm Not Gonna Take This Anymore!'

That famous line from the 1976 movie "Network" sums up the sentiment of many Americans as the health care debate continued to roar across the fruited plain. More town hall meetings featured citizens angry over proposed government expansion, leaving many congressmen not knowing quite how to handle the reaction. It's clear that many Americans have simply had enough.

That doesn't mean that Democrats were convinced to abandon their nefarious scheme. Instead, when their own constituents dared to question the infinite wisdom of the carriers of Potomac Fever, Democrat regulars put into practice the words of Obama administration lackey Jim Messina: "If [we] get hit, we will punch back twice as hard." In other words, don't worry about winning the debate; just try to discredit the opposition.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her left-hand man, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), started with an op-ed in USA Today declaring, "These [town hall meeting] disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views -- but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades." This type of "thinking" -- the transfer of one's own emotions or practices onto others -- is called projection. The Left has long since perfected the art of "drowning out" both opposing views and the facts, while blaming Republicans for doing the same thing.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) put out a call to action: "Opponents of reform are organizing counter-demonstrators to speak at ... several congressional town halls on the issue to defend the status quo. It is critical that our members with real, personal stories about the need for access to quality, affordable care come out in strong numbers to drown out their voices." The SEIU has since removed the words "drown out," but the message is clear -- silence the opposition.

Last week, the administration encouraged Americans who support "reform" to rat on those who are spreading "fishy misinformation," while Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) denounced the administration's opponents as shills of the insurance companies. This week, the Left is painting town hall protestors as racists. "I think 45 to 65 percent of the people who appear at these groups are people who will never be comfortable with the idea of a black president," said Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. MSNBC's Carlos Watson worried that "the word socialist ... is becoming the new N-word." And Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein called them "political terrorists" who are "poisoning the political well" and "willing to say or do anything to prevent" ObamaCare.

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) added, "[T]he last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it. At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble." How convenient, then, that one of his supporters showed up at a meeting with an Obama-as-Hitler sign to "illustrate" the opposition's "hate."

Similar signs were made by LaRouche PAC, an organization run by long-time Socialist Workers Party member and seven-time Democrat presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. Rep. David Scott (D-GA) had a swastika painted on his office sign after a heated exchange at a meeting. Talk about "fishy." What are the odds that the swastika wasn't painted by an opponent? Pretty good, given the Left's history of perpetrating similar hoaxes. Not that comparisons with the National Socialists of Germany aren't appropriate -- we made one last week -- and the Left certainly has done its best to invite the unflattering comparison. After all, it was Pelosi herself who first introduced the word "swastika" to the debate.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is so confident in the health care bill that he will conduct town hall meetings only by phone. And Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) had such esteem for her constituents that she talked to someone else on her cell phone while questions were being asked by meeting participants.

In the end, while Sen. Benedict Arlen Specter dismisses protestors as not "representative of America," here in our humble shop, we suspect that this horde of hysterical hypocrites is in fact not representative of America.

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I have no personal knowledge that Obama supporters are pretending to be opponents of the so-called ObamaCare, acting as the Right's "lunatic fringe" and thereby driving support to the health care side. If it's so, then shame on whoever came up with such a stupid idea and organized even stupider people into doing it.

Obviously, the Democrats have a problem with those who oppose them. They can't come out and debate the issue. See, Democrats legislate with their hearts and feelings. That's a good thing, but they can't justify and say in words why they feel they way they do, and want what they want. Their answer is that "we want what's best for the country. Sit down and shut up. I'll tell you what I want you to know and you'd best agree with me and stop asking questions. If I want questions I'll tell you what to ask."

The Republicans, on the other hand have the words. Unfortunately, what they say sometimes comes across as cold and unfeeling. They also want the best for the country. I truly believe both Parties are acting in what they perceive (see, there's that word again!) is the best interest of the country. They're just going about it in the wrong way. One is trying to shove something down our throats and the other is too busy trying to figure out what went wrong.

To the Democrats: stop playing your stupid, childish games. Don't say you want Town Hall meetings and then act surprised when people don't want what you're selling. You've seen the polls. Why are you surprised? If you're there to answer questions, don't answer your cellphone, ignoring people asking questions. It's rude. People get annoyed when they are dismissed for a phone call. Don't call a Town Hall meeting and do it by telephone. That's not a Town Hall meeting which implies that all people are there, even in the technological age we're in today. If you can't face your constituents, don't arrange a Town Hall meeting. Don't allow Unions to attend meetings as something they're not. Union members are citizens and have the right to be there - as themselves, not as, vocal, lunatic-fringe "opponents".

The reason why people are "mad as hell"? You're not listening to us. And worse, you're calling us unpatriotic and unAmerican. You're trying to sell us legislation we don't understand, and we know you haven't read so you can't possibly understand it yourselves. You're patronizing us, patting us on the head and telling us not to worry our pretty little heads over this. You know best and will take care of us. And worse, you call us unpatriotic and unAmerican because we ask questions.

We ask questions about how the government is going to pay for health care, and you don't give us answers. We're told, it won't cost us anything. And you expect us to buy that? Those in my generation and older are trying to tell you that we're worried that our retirements and pensions, our savings and all we've worked for will disappear. We ask questions about what will happen to us and our kids and grandchildren. You answer by saying we're disruptive, unpatriotic, and unAmerican for asking questions. Many people have lost their jobs, their savings, their homes, and you berate us for asking questions and say, yes, once again, that we're disruptive, unpatriotic, and unAmerican.

Politicians who support bad legislation and then don't listen to their vocal constituents, had better hope that the "silent majority" are the people who vote.