Maybe they don't matter to you, but here in Texas they dominate the Senate, the Governor belongs to them, so do both Senators, so do all the statewide elected offices, and the state House of Representatives is evenly split. Oklahoma is much worse. Clearly South Carolina is also dominated by these people. They also represent the 40% of Californians who have locked that state into an ungovernable mess. Those are just samples.

"Yawn" is simply not appropriate. It's not a good idea to ignore a nest of vipers. You need at a very minimum to understand what type of snakes they are and how they can be safely dealt with.

These people are scared. That's what's motivating them. They don't trust government and especially they don't trust a government run by a Black man. [In America the Black skin is a lot more important than the Harvard degree and the clear talent, lucidity and intelligence.]

They feel like they are losing control of the society they live in, and their reaction is to lash out in anger at anyone they can blame for the changes that frighten them.

The economy is in the tank, and the only people they can see to blame for that are the government. Government is supposed to be in control and to keep things stable. Government is supposed to prevent scary unpredictable changes, and it has failed. Why?

Well, what has changed in government recently? The Democrats are taking over a lot of it. And the Democrats are bringing in changes in climate legislation and they are going to change the health insurance policies for everyone who has them. And they aren't willing to fight for America. They don't respect soldiers. The current government isn't controlling and reining in the changes, they are making them worse.

So these protesters are especially against Democrats. Democrats don't protect against change, they promise change. But the protesters are also against any incumbent. They are angry at government generally because it has failed to keep control over the society and the economy.

Is the government overwhelmed, or is it incompetent, or is all of this a conspiracy? Is it time to bring in a strong leader who will kick ass, take names, get control and get something done? That's what the Italian brag that Mussolini got the trains to run on time meant. [That was a propaganda coup by the Fascists, of course.]

Is it time to quit bothering with this liberal blather about human rights and instead consider the rights of the majority? Nothing else has worked and everything is getting steadily worse. Any news to the contrary is a propaganda lie from a media that no longer attempts to tell the truth. It's just out to make money, take control of the government and screw us all over. And we all know things are getting worse. This is in spite of the happy talk on the news. We know it because it is getting worse all around us, and no one is getting anything any better. The media is in fact lying. The government is lying. Who is left to trust? [Your pastor and a few other people who look like you. Limbaugh speaks to all of this very clearly, and Beck is learning how. And I agree with them about the media lying. I just disagree which elements of the media are lying and which are telling something close to the truth.]

You can't reason with angry, frightened people. That should be no surprise. But you'd damned well better listen to them. These people have a lot to be afraid of, only a few institutions and media sources they trust, and they are gearing up to do something to government as a result.

As a side note, If the Democrats can't get health care passed, I agree with the protesters on the incumbents. The bill should have been done by August. Now they are talking about next year? I'm leaning towards opposing every incumbent. Even if there are some good ones, they are demonstrating their incompetence with the health care bill. They'd better deliver, and soon,or they are all gone. And when changes like that start, all kinds of other changes get included - like elimination of a lot of the Constitution.

Bellantoni's article is important.

The events today did draw the stumping and support of high-ranking Members of Congress (Boehner, Cantor). Admittedly, the coverage is a little snarky and sensational at times. But it is important to pick up on what these protesters are saying. Congressional Republicans (and some Dems) were nearly in-sync with the tea-party memes on the healthcare debates.

LOL! Is there a single Republican who's "smarter than a 5th grader"?

Bet the kids of the show know the difference.

Many of them for generations have believed they are more of a American

I agree. I think they've believed they are in control. That, as an entitlement. I know they prefer to call it "freedom" or "independence" (or whatever fancy names which serve as ideological divices to justify them), but I think it's more like a raw sense of control.

But the reality is their pay won't go up (rather go down), or even their jobs are gone, they find themselves moving down, doing not even so well as their parents' generation. In the meantime, they see everyone else, minorities, women, gays and lesbians, etc, is moving up (that's how they see things anyway regardless of facts). As you say, Obama is an ultimate symbol of this shifting landscape in front of them, and in their mind, the world seems to stop being the one as they long know it. A textbook case of relative deprivation.

When a sense of losing control turns to fear and anger, someone got to fill that void (where Backmann & Co sneak in), and someone must be to blame (Obama, his liberal friends, and everyone else "moving up").

It is important to call a spade a spade.

Yes, but the administration has been very careful so it won't be framed in racial terms. And I think they are right in their approach.

Calling people stupid while simultaneously misspelling words and writing grammatically incomprehensible sentences is the epitome of internet fail.

Also, "A tale told by an idiot" as well. Don't want to forget Bachman.

The problem is that Wall Street is the central focus for control by the wealthy oligarchs. They literally create their own money there, send their children to Wall Street to work, and they use the markets to gain control of the business organizations that are important to them.

They have used Wall Street to gain at least partial control of the major city newspapers not run by families, of the TV and cable networks and of the state and local governments. Wall Street funds are either directly or indirectly the source of most of the lobbyists in Washington and in every state capital.

That's why our government is controlled by money instead of by the voters. The wealthy oligarchical families want it that way. John McCain, for example, first married a wealthy woman, and then her family bought him his Senate seat. He has paid them back a hundred times over for their investment.

Guess why the current incumbents will not vote for public financing of elections. Guess why Wall Street hates that idea. Guess which way FOX (Murdoch) leans on that idea.

Because he LIES anytime he opens his mouth!!!! What happended to not hiding information... open book..... RIGHT ... that's why everything happens behind closed doors and the media can only report what HE says they can!!! Where are all those jobs he promised??? Unemployment rates are STILL climbing!!!!!!! What about anything he's promised????? Have you seen anything that is helping this country yet???? I HAVEN'T !!!! THAT's why WE don't trust him!!!! Not for COLOR or anything else!!!!!

George Hutchins, he loves, the comma!!!! SOLUTE!!!!!!