In regard to Thomas
Frank's op-ed "From Televangelism
to the Tea Parties":
I, like Mr. Frank, was there, but in my lab coat, on Saturday in
front of the Capitol in Washington. I am a physician and this was my
first protest, not against reform, but against this reform. This reform
does nothing to make insurance more affordable, improve patient choice
or allow physicians to make patient focused decisions. Now the
government will be in the examination room with you and your physician,
and if this was not bad enough, there will be exploding costs, which, in
the end, will result in rationing and oppressive taxation at the very
least and not just for the wealthy.
This "reform" was done
against the public will and made a sham of representative democracy. We
were not a group of right-wing protesters chanting slogans in
18th-century diction—anachronistic romantics. There were many Democrats
there (many sought me out for my opinion) and these individuals
understood that the tentacles of ObamaCare would fundamentally change
America. Our exceptionalism is in decline, as we are now on the path to
becoming just another debt-laden European socialist backwater.
Erik Dahl, M.D.
Bethesda, Md.
I am a mathematics professor and confess I have also been a "tea
partier." I take offense at Mr. Frank's characterization of tea partiers
as "TV citizens, regurgitating TV history lessons." For the record, Mr.
Frank, I know my history and didn't learn it from my TV set. What I do
know is that history is being made as President Obama adds more to the
debt and deficit than all past presidents combined. I also know from my
history that no president in power has ever bashed a previous
administration in public as Mr. Obama is so fond of doing.
Mr. Frank then goes on to
say that, "They seem to care little for the give and take of the
legislative process." Really, Mr. Frank. Really? Where exactly has the
"give and take" happened with this health-care bill? Congress voted
along party lines with virtually no GOP input, except a few empty
gestures of a get-together and a "study" of tort reform.
The "give" part, I
suspect, is the ramming and jamming of the bill through in a hurry
without even posting online.
I guess I get the "take"
part, too, Mr. Frank. The senators and congressman who were "on the
take" to cut deals like the "Cornhusker" deal, the "Louisiana Purchase,"
and who knows what else.
People like me are angry
and tired of the arrogant way this administration and Congress has been
governing. We're not here to entertain you (or journalists like you)
acting like reality TV celebrities. We are normal taxpayers who want
less government in our lives, not more, and want our voices to be heard.
Mimi Rasky
Professor of Mathematics
Southwestern College
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 