In 1953, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote of the Soviet suppression of a spring uprising in Berlin,
Would it not be easier,
In that case for the government,
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Why quote a communist bootlicker and Stalin hagiographer best known for socialist realism, whatever that means? Because in that single moment of apparent weakness, he seems to have captured how government apparatchiks must think when caught in the headlights of popular discontent.
And yes, of course, the image of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs does come to mind.
The happy spokesman (he always inexplicably laughs when journalists begin to taunt him) said this when asked about the prairie fires engulfing Town Hall meetings this month:
“I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the Astroturf nature of so-called grass-roots lobbying.”
Actually, the protests are taking place in opposition to the Obama Administration’s proposed takeover of health care. What they are, clearly, is an attempt by the people to make their voices heard by their elected representatives. It is democracy at its finest and the reason why the Obama Administration and its Congressional mini-me’s wanted to have the health care bills sewn up before the August recess.
Gibbs and other White House communications gurus, such as ex-ABC reporter Linda Douglas (no longer paid by Disney shareholders to flak for Obama, but now paid by taxpayers), are trying to paint the demonstrators as stooges of the insurance industry. It’s understandable, as nobody likes insurance companies, but it’s wrong. And by that I don’t just mean that it’s inaccurate.