Violence and rebellion in townhalls

It's interesting the way the violence at some of the townhalls on health care reform have been reported. There are those that blame the unions and the democrats and those that blame those who are protesting. Take Krugman's opinion piece as an example:

But while the organizers are as crass as they come, I haven’t seen any evidence that the people disrupting those town halls are Florida-style rent-a-mobs. For the most part, the protesters appear to be genuinely angry. The question is, what are they angry about?

There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands.

Now, people who don’t know that Medicare is a government program probably aren’t reacting to what President Obama is actually proposing. They may believe some of the disinformation opponents of health care reform are spreading, like the claim that the Obama plan will lead to euthanasia for the elderly. (That particular claim is coming straight from House Republican leaders.) But they’re probably reacting less to what Mr. Obama is doing, or even to what they’ve heard about what he’s doing, than to who he is.

That is, the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the “birther” movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.

And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers.

To sum that up he's basically saying those who oppose the President's health care plan are racists...

Then read Hewitt
who makes a totally different suggestion:

All the hit pieces and all the supporting fire from a still cheering MSM (there are credible exceptions like ABC's Jake Tapper and Politico's Mike Allen) are not going to turn the debate on Obamacare because it sets up a "government plan/private option" that will attract thousands of employers to dump millions of employees into it. That's the hard reality, the granite fact, at the heart of this debate. Tens of millions of Americans don't want to go into the post office or DMV equivalent of health care, and they will continue to say no --at various volumes-- and to learn every day that Team Obama just doesn't care what they think. The concerned citizens should sit down and shut up according to all the president's men and women. And those men and women are taking names.

He's basically stating that the Democrats in power and the President are the ones to fear.

And then there is Maher who basically thinks most Americans are stupid...

The health care debate is confusing and the lack of real answers is what is scaring people, part of it is the misinformation being spread by those who oppose it but those who support it are not winning any prizes with their behavior....