So why all the outrage at the town hall meetings? Where do I begin?
Obviously there are Americans who have a problem with some of the specifics of this health care reform initiative. But that's not really the heart of it. The problem here for The White House may be that this is just too much big government all at one time. This is NOT just about health care. It's about a government takeover of GM, a huge 800 billion dollar government bailout and now more huge government involvement in health care. Oy-vey! Americans may simply be sending a strong message. Enough is enough.
You see, two things are going on here. First of all, people typically do not like change. Comfortobaility is a good thing so President Obama has human nature going against him from the get go but in addition, many Americans simply don't trust the federal government to do anything right. Heck, President Obama even admitted it when he talked about how UPS and Fed Ex do a better job than the post office. There's also one more factor: The fact of the matter is that while President Obama's goals may be noble, he has to fight off the perception that he's just another big government liberal. Look, the man is a Democrat and had a very liberal voting record in the Senate. We know his political leanings and while he's made serious attempts to position himself as a centrist the reality is that he has to overcome fears by some Americans that he won't govern like a big time government liberal.
The anger at the town halls is rooted in skepticism. Not so much in Obama as in the federal government and the fact that things are moving along a little too fast.
"Change You Can Believe in" was Obama's campaign slogan. But now the better slogan may be "Too Much Change You May Not Buy Into"