Pull The Camera Back

It is good, in an emotionally-charged environment, to try to 'pull the camera back', to see the drama a bit more in context.

Members of Congress and Senate have been greeted by rooms full of enraged constituents, and Nancy Pelosi once again demonstrated her gift of throwing partisan gasoline onto the fire of public discourse by referring to the protestors as 'un-American' in last Saturday's USA Today Op-Ed.

There is video everywhere, but two examples, here and here, are illustrative.

Close-up camera work is very immediate, but it's valuable to pull the camera back and see the context.

The lawmakers assumed they were going to meet rooms half-full of supportive constituents, and 'explain' their support of a massive piece of legislation they themselves had not read.

The constituents, on the other hand, heard news of the meetings, and saw it as the opportunity to express their utter frustration with a government that has totally gone out of control. ObamaCare was just the final exasperating proposal that brought them out in droves, and the meetings provided the forums to vent their anger.

Add to that a few well-publicized disparaging remarks from White House staffers referring to the citizens as 'AstroTurf', and Pelosi's comment that the protesters were seen carrying Nazi emblems, stir gently for a few days, and stand well back as you wait for the explosion.

What seemed to stun Arlen Specter was the fact that his constituents were not happy that he had switched parties, just to preserve his chairmanship! He was surprised to find that they had begun reading about what was happening to them, and truly shocked that they were talking to one another. Some had even read the bill! The most telling moment was when a 35-year-old small businesswoman declared, 'You have wakened a sleeping giant!', to roars of approval in the room.

Then, video begins to surface of Obama's union supporters beating people who dared to disagree, scenes of citizens locked out of meetings, with more comments from the elites that these people are just racists, etc.

OldSouth thinks that something big is being overlooked in the coverage of the emotional moments: It isn't just about ObamaCare, or Obama. It's about Congress, spending, spending, spending the future away, ignoring the pleas of the voters to stop.

They have lost faith in their government, and have concluded the only means of getting the attention of their representatives is to show up in droves and scream at them.

There is something happening in the culture, a true green shoot. The internet is allowing people to read about what has happened to them, and what may yet happen, from authoritative voices such as Simon Johnson, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, who was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund during 2007 and 2008.

This post from Jesse is a great introduction and summary.

The entire article is here.