I attended a rally outside of the office of Congressman Gary Peters (D) Michigan on August 6.  The intent of the rally was to voice opposition to HR 3200, also known as ObamaCare.  It was a good day for the rally, perhaps a little on the warm side.  In hind sight I would have been more comfortable wearing shorts rather than jeans.  The crowd was well behaved with their only transgression being that the Troy police officers occasionally reminded people to stay on the sidewalk and off the grass.  My neighbor and I estimated the size of the crowd to be 500 to 700 people, it was a large turnout.  Additionally, there were counter-protesters numbering in the range of only 2 or 3 dozen people.   They were vastly outnumbered by those of us who were against ObamaCare.

 For the most part the two groups of protester stayed to themselves.  Inevitably though there was bantering back and forth along the frontlines that separated the two groups.  I would say that while few in numbers, the counter-protestors were better organized.  They appeared to have a formal leader who would use his bullhorn in an attempt to rev up his troops with the mindless chant of “WHAT DO WE WANT”, “HEALTHCARE”, “WHEN DO WE WANT IT”, “NOW”.  His bullhorn was only marginally effective as those against ObamaCare would yell “FREEDOM” in place of “HEALTHCARE” and we vastly outnumbered them.  I also heard people insert the words “NEW PRESIDENT” in place of “HEALTHCARE”.  Hmm, I think I’ll try and find a bullhorn for the next rally.

I’m really not 100% certain who organized the rally.  I’m guessing it might have been a Tea Party group from the local area.  I found out about it from the internet.  Anyway, it was my sense that this protest group was formed on an ad hoc basis, a far cry from the “organized” protest groups being derided by mainstream media organizations.  But, what if this group of people were formally organized to conduct this protest against socialized medicine?  Does it matter if this was a grass roots protest or an “Astroturf” protest?  (I have heard Senator Harry Reid (D) use the term “Astroturf protester” in a derogatory manner in an attempt to impugn their character, implying that their concerns with a government takeover of 1/6 of our economy was somehow fake or phony.)  Although, if in fact this was an organized protest, then President Obama should have been beaming with pride.  After all he was formerly a community organizer.

It was both exciting and informative to be part of the protest.  It was exciting because I thought that perhaps our nation has a chance to hold back the wave of big government activism being foisted upon us.  It was informative to have the opportunity to chat with many like-minded individuals whom I’d never met before.  All of these individuals had the same concerns that I had.  They were concerned about letting politicians and government bureaucrats dictate and ration their health care.  They know how poor of a job that our leaders have done managing the finances of Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security and they are not willing to cede more control to them.  In the war against creeping socialism, this battle was won by the good guys.  It is a small victory but a victory none the less.  Many more victories are needed; many more volunteers are vital.  Contact me at admin@limitgovnow.com if you want to help—or post a comment on this blog.

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