Crowds protesting government spending grow
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DENVER -
Nearly every day for the past week, crowds of Coloradans have turned up at town hall meetings and congressional meet-and-greets armed with signs, flags and clothing expressing their angry opposition to President Barack Obama's proposed health care reforms.
Last Thursday, around 150 protesters gathered outside a downtown health clinic where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was taking a tour. Over the weekend, Democratic Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis found themselves being shouted down by conservatives outside grocery stores and coffee shops. Wednesday night, more than 600 people showed up in Littleton to take part in a town hall organized by Republican Rep. Mike Coffman.
"I've been in politics a long time and I've never seen anything quite like this," said Jon Caldara, the director of the Independence Institute, a conservative think-tank based in Golden.
The growing groups of protesters and their intensifying anger point to perhaps the broadest challenge facing the White House as it seeks to overhaul health care: a creeping skepticism among older, and disproportionately white, voters that the government is not on their side -- and an accompanying outrage growing in the face of a damaged economy, a series of bank and Wall Street bailouts, and big-dollar government programs to stimulate jobs and stave off foreclosures.
"These are middle America people who have never come to these events before," Caldara said. "Tapping this anger over growth in government, and over this government takeover of health care has struck a chord. And this anger is genuine -- it's not manufactured."
Caldara admits that he's part of a group or local and national radio and television hosts stoking the flames of this debate; and many of those showing up at town halls and community meetings amplify the same exact attacks that started over the airwaves -- namely, calling President Obama a socialist.
"I'm a Constitutionalist now. I guess I always was and didn't know it," said Laura Barnes last week. "I'm here because I'm tired of all the bills that are being pushed through. We are losing our country. And we want it back."
Liberal commentators have questioned the patriotism of the protester's tactics and are now wondering aloud if those attending rallies and tea parties aren't simply cloaking what are truly racist attacks on President Obama in their anti-socialist arguments.
"All the claims of Nazism and socialism are really racist attacks," said David Sirota, one of many liberal columnists who define the growing conservative uprising as a "white backlash" -- that of a dwindling white non urban America, aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind.
But Caldara refutes that notion, or what he says are the other side's attempts to point to one person with an outlandish statement -- say the t-shirt one teen wore to Coffman's town hall showing Obama's photo next to the caption, 'Hitler gave great speeches too' -- as representative of the entire movement.
"You're going to have a few outliers. You're going to have some idiot who brings a swastika to an event," Caldara said. "That doesn't color this movement, this middle America movement. We're saying: we've had enough."
Last Thursday, around 150 protesters gathered outside a downtown health clinic where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was taking a tour. Over the weekend, Democratic Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis found themselves being shouted down by conservatives outside grocery stores and coffee shops. Wednesday night, more than 600 people showed up in Littleton to take part in a town hall organized by Republican Rep. Mike Coffman.
"I've been in politics a long time and I've never seen anything quite like this," said Jon Caldara, the director of the Independence Institute, a conservative think-tank based in Golden.
The growing groups of protesters and their intensifying anger point to perhaps the broadest challenge facing the White House as it seeks to overhaul health care: a creeping skepticism among older, and disproportionately white, voters that the government is not on their side -- and an accompanying outrage growing in the face of a damaged economy, a series of bank and Wall Street bailouts, and big-dollar government programs to stimulate jobs and stave off foreclosures.
"These are middle America people who have never come to these events before," Caldara said. "Tapping this anger over growth in government, and over this government takeover of health care has struck a chord. And this anger is genuine -- it's not manufactured."
Caldara admits that he's part of a group or local and national radio and television hosts stoking the flames of this debate; and many of those showing up at town halls and community meetings amplify the same exact attacks that started over the airwaves -- namely, calling President Obama a socialist.
"I'm a Constitutionalist now. I guess I always was and didn't know it," said Laura Barnes last week. "I'm here because I'm tired of all the bills that are being pushed through. We are losing our country. And we want it back."
Liberal commentators have questioned the patriotism of the protester's tactics and are now wondering aloud if those attending rallies and tea parties aren't simply cloaking what are truly racist attacks on President Obama in their anti-socialist arguments.
"All the claims of Nazism and socialism are really racist attacks," said David Sirota, one of many liberal columnists who define the growing conservative uprising as a "white backlash" -- that of a dwindling white non urban America, aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind.
But Caldara refutes that notion, or what he says are the other side's attempts to point to one person with an outlandish statement -- say the t-shirt one teen wore to Coffman's town hall showing Obama's photo next to the caption, 'Hitler gave great speeches too' -- as representative of the entire movement.
"You're going to have a few outliers. You're going to have some idiot who brings a swastika to an event," Caldara said. "That doesn't color this movement, this middle America movement. We're saying: we've had enough."
