Teabaggers: A Hasty Response

My cousin Dave, an Obamaniac, reads accounts of the mischief of the Teabaggers and says: "These stories worry me How about you?" Here's a hasty and ill considered and totally off the top of the head response:

Sure they do. I will concede/assert a few complicating points.

1. Radical lefties have done it too. Of course. So what? Just because your big brother engages in a dangerous flirtation with fascist hoodlumism, does that mean you have to do so too?

2. Protesters have legitimate concerns. So far as one can tell, true,although they don't always make it easy to determine just what it is they want. I suspect that for the most part these are people who fear paying more for less. This is a legitimate concern, and may even be a realistic possibility. But you'd think they'd have some knack for making their points more explicitly (cf. get your government hands off my Medicare, oh tee hee). And you'd think they might have some minimal inquire as to whether, e.g., President Obama really does favor the compulsory killing of old people.

3. The Dems have done a piss poor job of trying to respond to such legitimate criticisms as there may be. One impediment here is they don't have any idea what they intend to do themselves. This makes it hard to come up with a response. It also excites paranoia--no information always does more harm than any information.

4. My own guess is that the best the Dems will come up with is a little bit more of the same--somewhat expanded coverage, st somewhat higher cost, and heaven knows on whose toe the cost ingot will drop. This is not a program likely to mollify the protesters. Ironically, it won't mollify Obama's warmest supporters either, who are already demoralized to observe that he doesn't walk on water.

Afterthought: Teabaggers? GTeabaggers? Isn't that somebcdy's idea of a bad joke?