Obama supporters, not health care protesters, are real mob
- From: jose el fontanero <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:57:43 -0700 (PDT)
Obama supporters, not health care protesters, are real mob
By: Roger Abbott and Iain Murray
Special to The Examiner
August 26, 2009
President Barack Obama’s supporters have marginalized upstart
protesters by referring to them as angry Astroturf mobs doing the
bidding of talk radio and Big Pharma. Yet, there is, in fact, a
radical, divisive, mass movement on the march — on the left.
In his seminal work on mob behavior, “The True Believer,” Eric Hoffer
provides a compelling analysis of the conditions necessary for a
revolutionary movement to attract a mass following. He writes:
“For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they
must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have
the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible
leader or some new technique they have access to a source of
irresistible power. They must also have an extravagant conception of
the prospects and potentialities of the future. Finally, they must be
wholly ignorant of the difficulties involved in their vast
undertaking. Experience is a handicap. The men who started the French
Revolution were wholly without political experience. The experienced
man of affairs is a latecomer. He enters the movement when it is
already a going concern.” [Emphasis ours.]
It’s striking how closely Hoffer’s description — written in 1951 —
matches Obama’s movement today. Most “netroots” activists who rallied
around Obama were not impoverished victims, but affluent, mostly white
activists with visions of a new, “progressive” America.
They invested their hopes and dreams in Obama, as did a number of
disenchanted moderates and Republicans. The utopian expectation that
Obama could exorcise the country’s sins and conflicts was extravagant.
He also lacked executive experience.
The town hall and Tea Party protesters, in contrast, make for a poor
mass movement, however discontented they may be. They do not feel
empowered — quite the opposite — they have no charismatic leader, no
majorities in Congress, nor a clear, overarching alternative agenda to
support.
They are generally disillusioned with the leftward lurch of the Obama
administration. They share a common fear for the nation’s prosperity,
the exploding deficit and an overreaching Congress.
Support for Democratic health care reform fell to a new low of 42
percent Aug. 11, according to Rasmussen. A number of conservative and
libertarian figures, including Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, have
sought to offer leadership to those vocally opposing Obama,
encouraging people to attend town hall meetings, just as Democratic
groups have with their supporters.
That these protests are all orchestrated by a manipulative
superstructure is nothing more than fanciful thinking on the part of
the left.
The evidence suggests that these uprisings have occurred
spontaneously, and that Republican leaders have sought to revive their
reputations by jumping on the bandwagon. So far, they have failed.
Even as the approval of Obama and the Democrats continues to drop,
there has been no corresponding spike in Republican numbers, which
remain abysmally low.
This anger isn’t guaranteed to result in a 1994-type Republican
takeover in 2010. Even if the public distrusts Democrats, it
understandably views Republicans as incompetent.
The drive and direction necessary for a strong mass movement are just
not present right now. Given the diffuse nature of the town hall
demonstrations and the impotence of politicians, there is a real
possibility that this movement will fizzle out if and when some
watered-down form of Obamacare is passed. If Hoffer’s conditions can
be satisfied, however, the Tea Parties could once again be the
beginning of a genuine revolution.
Roger Abbott is a research associate and Iain Murray is director of
projects and analysis at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
.
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