Voting for Obama Wasn't Enough

Are you horrified or disgusted by the violence that anti-reform hooligans perpetrated at a town hall in Tampa last night?

Then channel that reaction into the same kind of effective action that elected President Obama last year.

Paul Krugman explains that the rage on display at these townhalls has little to do with actual proposals for health care reform, but everything to do with the color of the face making those proposals.

That is, the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the “birther” movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.

And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers.

Does this sound familiar? It should: it’s a strategy that has played a central role in American politics ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites.

Many people hoped that last year’s election would mark the end of the “angry white voter” era in America. Indeed, voters who can be swayed by appeals to cultural and racial fear are a declining share of the electorate.

But right now Mr. Obama’s backers seem to lack all conviction, perhaps because the prosaic reality of his administration isn’t living up to their dreams of transformation. Meanwhile, the angry right is filled with a passionate intensity.

And if Mr. Obama can’t recapture some of the passion of 2008, can’t inspire his supporters to stand up and be heard, health care reform may well fail.

Don't wait to be inspired. Click here to get great quick directions on how to fight back, where to find or organize an event, and how to behave at town halls to shut down the hoodlums.