This summer of the big, phony, insane health care reform "debate," we've heard the complaints by the old "conservatives" -- many of whom, by the way, are not the Greatest Generation; they're the ones who were too young for WWII and Korea, and too old for Vietnam and are dominated by the generation of Eugene McCarthy and the Red Scare-- and the young racists who hate themselves so much, and, of course, the great-grandchildren of TR's "malefactors of great wealth". They're pissed off. They lost, to a black man, and they're pissed off.

All of these same issues were debated fully in the campaign and they lost the argument. The voters decided they were wrong, by a large margin.

But they pretend none of that happened and wear stupid-looking tea bags on their ball caps and pack heat to presidential rally and bleat "this is a democracy" and they "want their country back.

I guess it depends on your definition of democracy.

If you believe that only the elections you win matter; if you believe that elections are not final; if you believe that your opponents are evil incarnate, and illegitimate, no matter what the majority of the voters say across the land, then you'd fit right in with the logic of the GOP and the Rush Limbaugh's of the world. Armed insurrection, threats of violence, bullets not ballots, are the natural language of that bizarro world view. People that think this way have walked the earth before, and they have wrought death and destruction across Europe and Asia throughout the 20th Century.

  "This is a democracy" are four words that are really important, though, and ought to be on the mind of every lawmaker and public official.
 
    As blogger Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly points out, "Americans voted in November, electing a large Democratic majority in the House, a large Democratic majority in the Senate, and handing a Democratic president a large mandate. With that in mind, if a majority of the House wants health care reform, a majority of the Senate wants reform, and the president wants to sign a reform bill, reform should pass. After all, "at the end of the day, this is a democracy." The "voice of the people" was heard loud and clear on Election Day. If majority rule should carry the day, then health care reform advocates are in good shape."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019648.php

    But one right-wing talk-show instigator after another, one far-right representative from various parts of the old Confederacy-- and their ideological running buddies like Glenn Thompson from places like Pennsylvania's 5th District--apparently don't believe in the same kind of democracy that equals the "voice of the majority" in a free and fair and open election.

The True Believer always knows what's best for me, no matter what I tell him.

But the Lost Cause is still lost, Caleb. 
   
So what is your definition of democracy? Is it based in the vote of a free people, with the responsibility to govern given to the majority, or is democracy supposed to be given to the overweight, overaged kid that throws the biggest temper tantrum?

I'm really getting sick of the crap.