A Tale of Two Reforms

In today’s Pollster.com (and cross-posted at The Next Right), I wrote about the polling numbers that show how there’s a lot of similar context between the health care debate and the 2005 social security debate.  In both cases, the President took his popularity and electoral mandate and decided to go for broke on a policy reform that hit major blowback in the public forum.

What I don’t touch on is the fact that a lot of the debate about “astroturfing” and “out of hand protestors” is also incredibly similar.  Run a quick Google search for “town hall” “social security” and “2005″ and see if you don’t get hit after hit after hit where the parallels are evident.   The losing side in these situations likes to declare that the opposition isn’t real, that it’s being over-amplified and represents an insignificant real threat.

Do I think most Americans are so angry about health care that they want to go get angry in the face of their Congressman?  Not really, but I do think that the polls are showing a dramatic change in how America views the Obama administration, and I think that if Democrats simply write off the frustration that is being vented in town halls, they do so at their own peril.