The anger is genuine, no doubt about it. I've seen it on the faces of the people picketing Rep. Giffords' office. I've watched videos of the shouters at town halls across the country. The anger is being manipulated by powerful interests, but it isn't manufactured from the outside. It comes from the gut.
Where does all that deep-seeded anger come from? It isn't based in health care reform legislation the most recent crowds appear to be enraged about, or cap-and-trade legislation, or the ridiculous allegation that Obama isn't a native born citizen. Those are the targets of the anger, not its root cause.
The origin of their anger is summed up in one sign I see waving at every demonstration: “We want our country back!” The crowds feel like their country has been stolen from them. The Democrats are the thieves, and Obama is the sinister ringleader.
“We want our country back.” That says it all.
To the protestors, the words, “our country,” have a dangerously narrow meaning. In their world, the U.S. doesn't belong to all Americans; it's the exclusive property of people who believe like they do. It belongs to those who cherish the feelings of fear and pride stirred up by the Bush administration, people who believe they are the true patriots protecting this country against enemies foreign and domestic. Those who disagree with them are cowards, or traitors, or both. During the Bush years, the “real Americans,” the “true patriots,” always got the last word, because they occupied the seats of power. That's how their country is supposed to work.
They became frightened when the balance of power shifted toward the Democrats in the 2006 elections. Then in 2008, their worst nightmare was realized. A Democrat was elected to the White House.
When these people close their eyes and visualize “our country,” they don't see a Democrat standing behind the presidential podium, let alone an African American with a strange, foreign sounding name that drives them crazy whenever they hear it. They were taught to believe in the Divine Right of Republicans. They were promised a Republican would sit in the Oval Office forever.
Their unfocused rage at having “their country” taken away from them makes them dangerous – their violence-tinged rants about secession and revolution are truly terrifying – and it also makes them easy marks for anyone who wants to use them. An angry mob is every demagogue's dream. If you can raise its anger to fever pitch, you can steer it against any enemy you set in its path.
Conservative politicians, corporate interests and talk show hosts haven't manufactured the anger of the mobs at town halls. They've just stirred it up and focused it to thwart the Democratic agenda.
Take the crowds outside of Giffords' office a month ago. Few of them cared enough about cap-and-trade to stand out in the hot sun for two hours protesting against it. But their anger was clay in the hands of the powerful interests who think pollution controls will hurt their profit margins.
Are conservative senior citizens who love their Medicare actually against government-controlled health care? Of course not. But their rage at having their country taken away from them makes them easy targets for the distortions and outright lies fed them by the insurance industry. “Keep the government's hands off my Medicare!” they shout. The ridiculousness of that statement is obscured by their desire to believe anything they are told so long as it validates their blind rage.
Conservatives are gleeful that the minority Republican Party, with its ever-shrinking numbers, can have such a powerful effect on how the media covers the issues, which they hope will kill the Democratic legislative agenda. I'm not sure which is worse: their destructive ability to stand in the way of the change this country needs, or their frightening ability to manipulate the national dialogue by inflaming angry mobs.
Dave Safier is a regular contributor to Blog for Arizona.
