Rising opposition to President Obama’s health-care proposals may be morphing into something broader and deeper: an anti-Obama movement that could jeopardize the president’s political standing, damage the Democratic Party, and give the Republicans new life.
The concerns about “Obamacare” have triggered angry protests and emotional shout-downs at Democratic legislators’ town-hall meetings this August. And whether or not these eruptions have been orchestrated by right-wing groups, as Obama strategists contend, opposition to his health-care overhaul has struck a nerve.
In fact, the health-care furor has inflamed political passions and raised doubts that seem to be spreading to other areas, such as Obama’s expansion of government power, corporate bailouts, and vast increases in the federal debt. The president’s burgeoning and costly agenda got another jolt from a government projection that deficits will increase from $7.1 trillion to $9 trillion over the next decade.
Signs of the right’s resurgence abound. The blogosphere and the Internet are alive with anti-Obama screeds. Fundraising is going well at the Republican National Committee. Morale among GOP legislators is brightening. In the battle of ideas, the latest New York Times list of nonfiction bestsellers contains three anti-Obama books among its top five: Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin at No. 1, Catastrophe, by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann at No. 4, and Liberty and Tyranny, by Mark R. Levin at No. 5.
Obama could turn the dynamic around if he wins some victories on Capitol Hill this fall or if the economy rebounds significantly. And White House officials say that the stories that seem so important during the slow news month of August, such as raucous health-care protests, often fizzle out and amount to nothing in September.
But the Democrats are worried, and Obama’s allies have started trying to create a competing narrative to the GOP’s negative story line. The Democratic National Committee and other liberal groups have been organizing 2,000 pro-health-care-reform events between now and today, when Congress returns from its August recess — amounting to what a Democratic spokesman said will be a “national grass-roots push” for health-care overhaul. The events will focus on rallies, phone banks, and a bus tour in which prominent Democrats will try to marshal support in 11 cities, including Phoenix, Denver, and Indianapolis.
Yet even Democratic strategists concede that the message from many Americans to Obama is: Slow down. So far, he shows no sign of hitting the brakes.
Kenneth Walsh is a columnist for US News & World Report. A version of this commentary was published on Sept. 4.