Aren't you finding it fascinating? I am. I don't recall seeing another mass outpouring of political passion amongst ordinary middle-class Americans in my lifetime. This is the regular tax-paying American finally standing up and saying "enough." I think it's beautiful.

I discard utterly the idea that the people stomping their feet and screaming back at their "representatives" at the various "town meetings" are being ginned up by some sort of cabal of special interests and insurance company beards. No way. This is a cross section of America. You can't buy this, not on this scale, and yes, people have tried -- in fact they're trying to do so in order to stop it. It won't work.

But don't I have a problem with people shouting, and being rude, and disrupting meetings like this? Eh. Not really. Not in this case. Usually, even if the people doing the disrupting are friends I agree with I'd rather not see behavior like this, but there are exceptions, or at least cases where I'm conflicted. Let me offer an example.

Remember two years ago, when Palestinian propaganda outfit Wheels of Justice came to Andover? (It's Hot in Andover Tonight!) Yeah? So you remember how that night the crowd was rowdy, disrupted the event and it was eventually called early. I admit I was not so comfortable with the outsiders (non-Andover residents) in the audience that night, causing trouble, disrupting the event. Personally, I just quietly took notes as I always do.

But I felt far more conflicted regarding the Andover residents, and felt far less judgmental. These people, it seemed to me, had skin in the game -- kids in the schools, taxes to be paid, a stake in the community itself. They were victimized by two individuals -- Ron Francis and Tommy Meyers -- who used their kids to practice on, who were willing to game the system in order to force in something that most of the parents wouldn't want, and who were willing to spit in those same parents' eyes and laugh while doing it. The parents, the taxpayers, it seemed to me, could say, "We don't give a damn about your union contract, or what the ACLU thinks, our Natural Right as parents trumps you, and you may think you're clever, but we're not going to take this sitting down." They didn't. It was their choice. Agree or disagree, as insiders they had what Chris Matthews once called "absolute moral authority" in the matter. Whether I thought it was right or not, I wasn't going to judge them too harshly.

Our federal government has been busy proving the old saw about Democrats and never seeing a problem they didn't think they could solve by throwing money at it. Billions...hundreds of billions...TRILLIONS...this administration is spending it like a drunken sailor. So far, the pot has been only slowly coming to a boil. Why? The money has mostly been an abstract. It's been spent on things, materialized as debt...hell, even flushing cash down a toilet would be an abstract concept that would earn some phone calls and angry letters to Congressmen.

But along comes Barack Obama and the Big Idea. And the Big Idea is one that's been a dream for the left for a long time -- nationalized health care. Yes, I know he denies that, that it's just about choices, but you and I both know that's a lie. We know that because he said he wanted "single payer" health care during the campaign, and that's another word for socialized medicine and that's another word for Socialist Medicine. He said so, and his friends on the left like Barney Frank have said so...that this was just step one and the foot in the door to the whole shebang. You really have to not be paying attention to understand that. You have to be asleep not to see that's the ultimate result, even if it weren't the ultimate goal (which it is), and none of us needs a pamphlet from a special interest to see it. We get it.

This is the dream for these people who have been telling us that in comparison to Europe and Canada we are wanting, and what is it we want? Universal Health Care. But they're wrong, as always.

So along comes the Big Idea, and the Big Idea represents what may be the largest single grab for government power since the signing of the Constitution. Yes, really. Imagine being reliant upon government literally from cradle to grave for the most fundamental Right -- the right to life itself and the right to make choices about how you will live it. Consider the absolutely fundamental shift to the American character this represents. Is it any wonder the average American is finally shouting, "Stop! Not so fast! We see what you are doing!" Thank God there still exist enough Americans not so used to suckling the government teet that they can see the dangers in it, that there exist enough Americans still who do not believe simply tossing all our cares into the lap of a bureaucrat will solve them for us, until we are so infantilized and government so all-pervasive that we're finally down on our knees to Washington, "Oh thank you! Thank you for our LIVES! Thank you great father Obama for providing me with life for yet another day." Honor thy father and they mother says the Commandment. My parents don't live in Washington.

This is no longer an abstract. It is no longer just about money. It is about who we are as free people and whether we will just let it all die, strangled to death by another never to be gotten rid of government mess. The inevitable bankruptcy is the least of it.

So the Big Idea peddlers came down from Washington to sell us, to glad hand us, to hold marketing events. Did they think this was Cuba, or North Korea? Did they think the Commissar would come and stand before us and tell us what the politically correct notions of the day would be, and that we would all nod and sigh and say, "Wow, I'm so glad we don't have to worry about THAT anymore." Uh uh. This is still America, we're still a free people, and we're not buying what you're selling.

But they've gone too far. They've been going too far for years, but now they've really done it. They've woken the sleeping giant of the ordinary guy -- the ordinary guy who doesn't usually carry a sign, in fact he's a little suspicious of people too involved in politics or ideology. Believe me, you don't want to mess with this guy. When he gets in the game on the other side...it's game over.

And this guy, who feels disrespected (he's been feeling that way for years, but now you've stepped so close you're scuffing his shoe), who's tired of paying everyone else's bills (he's been paying them for years, but at least in the past he could write a check and be left alone)...you've got this guy's attention.

And to him the system isn't working. Being polite isn't working. You are not hearing him. You think you can giggle and keep going. You, Commissar Specter, Commissar Tsongas, you are in for a wake up call.

Since he no longer trusts the system which he believes you will game to your advantage no matter what while throwing him scraps it does not matter what you think it says in the contract. It does not matter how the meetings have traditionally gone. You are crossing an invisible line that exists in society and across which you dare not step. Since you have stepped, he is being rude. He is shouting you down. He will make sure you can hear him. Get the picture?

These people shouting at meetings are not the local fringe radicals obsessed with their pet issue -- Divest from International Zionism, Stop Global Warmening, Save the Snails...whatever...set on inserting themselves as a disruptive influence anywhere and everywhere they aren't wanted. These are the normal people shouting back, and that should be even more frightening.

On any sufficiently large issue, it ought to be necessary, in fact it is necessary, to make sure enough of the American people support you before going forward -- the bigger the issue, the bigger the percentage you should have on your side. That's a political reality, whether it be in the decision to go to war, or the decision to institute an absolutely massive federal power grab. At least in the Iraq War, the Democrats signed on to giving the president the power. They didn't start undermining the war effort until after the troops were committed. Obama doesn't have that excuse. He's being told in advance.

That's politics. As far as the ideals of the nation goes, 51% of the people do not have the right to enslave the other 49%. We are supposed to be protected from the tyranny of the majority, only in this case, Obama doesn't even have a majority of the American people on his side. The best he could hope for would be to ram something through Congress. That would be a very foolish thing to do.

Washington had better take a lesson, and stop self-deluding about astroturfing and other such nonsense. Get out of the echo chamber. This is a phenomenon. It's organic, not artificial. The people didn't want this the first time around. They still don't want it. They're literally screaming it in your face. Wave it off at your peril.