The Last Gasp of the Angry White Man

What we're seeing in these angry town halls these days is the last gasp of the angry white man. He's not quite sure what he's angry about, but he knows he's angry. It's not the world he used to know. He gets the disquieting feeling that he doesn't rule the roost anymore. And it's driving him crazy.

One of the chants at the town hall events was, "No national health care!" Okay, mission accomplished. No one has proposed such a thing. So, I guess they can go home now, befuddled at what they were yelling about.

The reality is that what they have been manipulated into arguing against is a public option that would give them more choices, not less in health insurance. It wouldn't nationalize health insurance at all, let alone any part of the rest of the health care industry.

But this isn't about health insurance. It isn't even about health care. You think those people are really this animated about having less health care options and making sure it costs more for them and their family? No, this is visceral for them. And it has nothing to do with their perceived choices on health care. This is about the sinking feeling in their stomach that they are losing power in this country -- losing control. That the reins of power are slipping out of their hands and they don't know what to do about it, except yell, really loud.

One guy famously shouted, "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." Everyone is understandably amused by this. But there is a larger point here. They don't care about the logic of the issue at hand. I'm not convinced they even care what the issue is. These are the same people that were yelling at the Palin rallies. They were screaming just as loud then, and it was different issues, or no issues at all. Just name calling and fear. Pure, unadulterated fear.

At a recent Tampa town hall people were yelling at the top of their lungs, "Hear Our Voice." Ironically, that's all we could hear. No one could hear the congresswoman there. Or any arguments that were being made or any issues debated. All they could hear was the loud, angry voices demanding to be heard.

And who is stoking these fires? Encouraging and egging on these screams, this anger, this fear? Conservative talk hosts all across the country (and, of course, special interest groups funded by the health care industry who are relishing using these poor schleps as fodder for their effort to kill health care reform). They're telling them the proper response is anger. Don't wait your turn. Don't listen to the congressman. Shout. Be heard. Be angry. Obama is taking this country away from you.

The woman who now famously stood up in a Delaware town hall and demanded that her congressman recognize the illegitimacy of Barack Obama's birth certificate, said something telling in her rant. She said, "I want my country back!"

Indeed. Where did it go? Of course, the country is still right here. It's the "my" part that's missing. She doesn't want this country back. She wants her country back.

I want everyone to be heard, too. I hated it when the Bush handlers would keep out dissenting voices from their town halls. If conservatives are frustrated with some of the policy initiatives of the Obama administration, I think it's an appropriately democratic reaction to show up at town halls and ask questions. In fact, if they did it in a way that asked their representatives interesting and tough questions, I'd be proud of them.

Some of them are holding up constitutions. They finally got them out of the drawer where they were collecting mothballs as the Bush administration ran roughshod over that sacred text. They didn't seem to demand loyalty to that document as the Bush team eviscerated the Fourth Amendment.

But bygones be bygones, if they want to hold Obama responsible for his signing statements for example, great. You can argue he is impinging against Article I of the Constitution just as Bush did.

Do you think that's the argument the town hall screamers are making? Come on, can anyone really discern an argument? Could they point to one clause that they think Obama has violated? My guess is if challenged they would scream out the Second Amendment. Except Obama has not only not done anything to impose gun control, he has gone out of his way to rein in his Attorney General to make sure he also does nothing about it. It isn't about the Second Amendment. It isn't about the Constitution. It's about the anger.

It's a self-justifying anger. The angrier they get the more they feel the imperative to get angry. What is it? What's really eating away at them? I don't think it's a conscious racial thing for them. It's more a feeling of their way of life slipping away from them.

Think about it. If you worked at the local shop and in the old days you could get your son hired there, things were pretty good. Now, they tell you that they have to give the job to someone else's son. Someone that doesn't look like you, someone that you've never met or ever talked to. There's been a lot of generations of that now.

You think those guys are going to inquire into the history of racial prejudice in this country and why it might make sense to increase diversity in a workplace when some groups have been excluded entirely? No, all they know is that their son couldn't get the same job that their dads got for them. They want their country back.

Of course, this has been building up for quite awhile. But now they have lost their political power. Now the epitome of what they were fighting against is their new leader. His first hire for the Supreme Court is a Hispanic woman, who they hear is racist against white men and was only picked because of her race and gender.

And when the president is talking about a confrontation between a white man (a cop trying to do his job) and a black man (another one that got to be a professor, though God knows if he earned it), he immediately chooses the side of the black man -- without even knowing the facts. Man, they're angry. This is the guy they were warned about.

Whether their perception is true is not relevant. It's the intensity of the perception that is relevant. And on top of all this, they feel the whole system is rigged against the average guy (and they're right about this one).

The bankers get all the money. The government spends a ton of cash, but they feel like it never comes to them. It feels like the guys at the top are the ones who always make out like bandits (the fact that their anger against this is being used by those same guys for their own interests is of tremendous irony).

But then add on top of that, their team lost. They don't feel like the president is "one of them." Maybe that's not even malicious, or at least consciously malicious. But that's how they feel. The world is changing around them and every time they turn on the radio or television (which, of course, is glued to Fox News), they are being told they're right to be angry. And that their anger should be directed primarily at one man: Barack Obama.

That's where the trouble comes in. It's starting to feel like a third world country around here. In developing countries there are organized mobs. There are disruptions of political gatherings. There are angry crowds and talk of gathering weapons. Talk of revolutions (one man in South Carolina told Rep. Inglis that "there is not a day that goes by ... that I don't hear talk of revolution in our country.").

We're America. We're supposed to be better than this.

We're supposed to resolve our differences peaceably and civilly. We're supposed to listen to one another. We're supposed to have the best democracy in the world. As it stands, we're one burning tire away from Haiti. We have to dial this thing back down.

Of course, the problem isn't the progressives here. Their side won. The moderates and independents aren't necessarily boiling over with anger. No, in this case, it's the right-wing. And there's the problem. Because there does not seem to be anyone on that side who is capable or inclined to bring down the volume of the conversation. If anything, their response is more shouting, more disruptions, more rancor and more accumulation of weapons. As one local Republican nominee in Virginia put it, "We have the chance to fight this battle at the ballot box before we have to resort to the bullet box." So, what happens when they keep losing at the ballot box?

It's beginning to smell a lot like banana republic around here. And there is no answer. If you try to suggest that they bring it down a notch, they scream censorship and warn their audience that their rights are about to be taken away from them. And so is their country. If you say it might not be such a good idea to have all of these weapons in the hands of all these angry men, they scream about the Second Amendment and tell their audience to hold on to their guns even tighter. And many have held on so tight that some of them even pulled the trigger.

How many more will? When does this stoking of anger and fear stop? And who would stop it? I really don't know. Here's one more thing I don't know. What happens if it doesn't?

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Comments

[Chantal Laurent]

Fear Obama? No need. Obama isn't change. It's a political slogan. US should be the best democracy? What of US' interventions in Haiti? The violence of 2 bloody DC backed & financed coups? When did the US ever defend freedom for Hai...tians, Latin Americans, Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghanis, Africans, or for that matter Uyhurs? Saved the Europeans? Not material. Fear of the other is endemic. Euros are not the other. Holland is not fearful of invasion by the US for its cheese [Africa for its oil is a good bet]. European bailout did not have structural adjustment measures. Even Russia is in the fold. Cold War posturing aside, Russia always had more in common with the US then differences.

"We're America. We're supposed to be better than this."
You sure about that?

"We're supposed to have the best democracy in the world. As it stands, we're one burning tire away from Haiti.
No, just one lynch mob away from America.

Haitians want their country back! Down with the UN occupation. Justice for the 1000s who've been killed or disappeared in Haiti and Latin America in US interventions to oust elected leaders.

That fowl smell- it's not bananas.

[spacebass5000]

so let's see if I got this right... when confronted with a dissenting opinion the liberal:

1. Goes ad hominem
2. Pulls out the race card
3. Puts a finger in each ear and yells LALALALALALALALA

Way to go Cenk! Because that's EXACTLY why I don't want Obama's HealthCare program getting passed. Because I'm a racist and afraid of losing my racial superiority.

Ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, I don't want sh*tty healthcare and higher taxes because of it?

dolt...

[Rick Bayan]

Let me join the chorus of huzzahs for this insightful piece. At last, someone writing for a liberal blog has attempted to understand the grievances and underlying fears of those "angry white people" without dismissing them all, in knee-jerk fashion, as uncouth ninnies.

As an outspoken moderate (yes, such creatures do exist!), I've been alarmed by the escalation of conservative grievances to their current fever pitch, and I'm afraid we could be headed for an ugly confrontational era that will make the late '60s look like Disney World by comparison. We all need to cool off, and this article is a valuable first step in that direction.

Rick Bayan
http://newmoderate.com

[IWillCallYouOut]

Understanding yes....but uncouth ninnies is still what comes to mind when I read about people with an uninhibited sense of entitlement.

I guess it was more of explaining why they are uncouth ninnies...?

All I can say is I get it but I am not sorry the world is changing. It should. And it would also be nice if more intelligent people were at the helm of these angry outbursts...but everyone's very limited understanding of the constitution (beginning with the fact that it can change...and lots of things the founding father's never heard of is in it) is disturbing. Like...I know not everyone can go to college and study constitutional interpreta­tion....bu­t then why to argue like you know when you don't?

[lojack180]

Finally! An insightful, honest commentary regarding the REAL reason behind resistance to healthcare reform. Thank you, Mr. Uyger.

[atrivera15]

This article tapped into the real reason these insane right wingers are so upset. This is about them losing control. It is the decent whites and the minorities of the country vs. all the war mongering if you aren't white you aren't right wingers. As someone else said they are starting to realize they cannot win at the ballot box anymore and they know this. The question is do they use violence to rectify things in their minds. Here again I believe they like all the wars they have gotten us into have underestimated their enemy. Doing this has destroyed this country. Not recognizing the people they hate so much in these foreign countries will fight to the death and until every last one of them is gone. Meanwhile these crazy people are eating their Cheetos and watching TV and thinking they can defeat an enemy that lives and breathes to fight.

[GiannaX]

Excellent post.

[go23]

What is funny is that this article is written as if the left is never upset or emotional about anything. All sides have passion for what they think is right. A logical mind can find irrational emotion on both sides of this issue.

But, I do agree. on a few points. This debate is about more than healthcare. This debate is the last straw for both groups. If Obama can get this rammed thru he will set up the democrat party for generations. (If he maintains control after 2010). Amnesty for illegals will follow which will increase the democrat voting block to an even more dominant position.

If obama fails, he will go down as a one-termer, and the repubs will even things out again.
No matter what side of the debate you are on, if you like political trainwrecks, you have picked the right spot to watch.
Somebody is going to crash and burn.

[GiannaX]

Just what will the Repubs "even out"? For the last eight years they were the main culprits of the "crash and burn" Obama is attempting to dig us out of.

[IWillCallYouOut]

I don't think good writing is criticizing both "sides" just to make sure you did it. Does Ungyr have to find some crazy left wingers for ..what? That is not the purpose of the article.

Essays have thesis statements, which are then supported by examples. This article, as implied by the title, is about the conservative angry mobs at town hall meetings, and where their anger comes from. Did the lack of mention of left wing crazy people detract from his point? Would it have helped him illustrate his point? No..I don't think so. Your reminds me of the people who have complained this political season of media bias....is it a journalists job to mention things he does not intend to or even agree with just because? There is an article about this on the Post today I believe.

Also : "Amnesty for illegals will follow which will increase the democrat voting block to an even more dominant position. " What does this mean? Can illegal aliens v ote...I would think not.

[SamEllison]

We progressives were "mad as h*ll and
were not going to take it". So we taught
ourselves to type and came to the
Huffington Post and changed the world.

The keypad is mightier than the gun!

[LDKRN1]

From teabagging to town halls to television, I have watched this mutant bunch melt down with detached interest rather than the unabated fury. Why? Because it has occurred to me that we would have more to worry about if these hate-filled crackpots weren't reacting in their predictably ugly fashion (see: Civil War and Civil Rights Act), because that would mean that their worldview wasn't being threatened in any way. Somebody moved their cheese, and they don't like it a little bit. They know they cannot win at the ballot box, so they are lashing out with intimidation and violence, egged on by unscrupulous and unethical snake oil salesmen like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. They understand that the golden age of Reagan-the great white hope of haters and loons and nativists everywhere-is dead and they are desperately trying to resurrect it by sheer force of will. It's ugly and pathetic, but that does not mean it won't on occasion be effective. But no amount of swastikas or Joker faces or screams of "WE'RE ALL A-GONNA DIE!" is going to reverse the shifting political, economic and cultural dynamics that have brought these humanoid cockroaches out in such force. Their panic is just a part of the process. It's a sign of the times.

So let them rage and froth. They are what they are, since we can't stop them or reason with them, we should welcome their hate. It means we are moving in the right direction.

[vreeseque]

he shouldn't have gotten ed schultz's time slot

[Ty90]

Incredible article Cenk. Love ya man.

[nomoredead]

This healthcare issue is also taking the spotlight off of Wall Street and the Banksters bailout billions and what have they done with that money to help main street or stem the foreclosure crisis.

[AbstractImp]

Thank you for this wonderful article about a horrific set of issues.

[Chip W]

Excellent article. You changed my thinking.
I'd been thinking this was about actual issues, especially health care, and it could be addressed rationally. That if someone said "No, there is no such thing as Death Panels," this would actually be heard.

But no, it's visceral, as you said. Down in the alligator brain, where fear obliterates rationality, where emotion obscures thought.

I can see it, but I sure don't understand it.

[Ohsnap]

If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)