Do you disagree with healthcare? Racist! How about the rising level of debt the US is taking on? Racist! You hold up a sign on the National Mall? Well if it’s not for one of those anti-war rallies, you’re clearly a racist. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson? If you don’t think he is a racist, you are a racist too! Jimmy Carter says you’re a racist. Paul Krugman says you a racist. According to many on the left, the only logical reason a person would oppose the President’s agenda is because they have racist tendencies.
Let me be clear, there still is racism in America today. There are people who did not vote for President Obama not because they opposed his policies but rather because they opposed his skin color. There are people today who are enraged that a black man occupies the White House today. Yet, the vast majority of people who oppose the President’s policies do so without race being a factor. They oppose him because they believe his policies hurt themselves, their families and America as a whole.
People on the left, and a lot of people on the intellectual right, don’t understand these people. It is in that same vein when Obama said that people in the heartland “cling to their guns and religion.” They aren’t as much intellectual as they go with their gut. They live by principles, and when those principles are breached, they get concerned. In order not to awake this sleeping giant, you have to go about reform in the same way. It’s often noted that America is a center-right country, but it is really more of a traditionalist country than holding to the left of the right.
This is the only realm where Americans can say “Don’t let the Government get their hands on my Medicare.” They don’t want what they have changed. People would rather keep their health care coverage now rather than buy this new health care plan Obama has. Obama is trying to push a lot of reform. It was bound to have resistance. I don’t care if Obama was black, white or alien, that is just the way it works.
