Chosen Ground

Nolan Finley, writing at The Detroit News:

They may be mad at corporate CEOs and Wall Street fat cats, but that doesn’t mean they’re enamored of politicians. They still see the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as a major part of the problem, and not likely to deliver the solution.

Even Obama, who took the oath in January as one of the most popular new presidents in American history, can’t convince them that Washington has changed so much that it can competently manage their health care.

The president is back on the campaign trail full-time, shucking his coat and tie and talking “just folks” as he tries to reassure a suspicious public that it has nothing to fear.

Yet, he can’t turn this tide. Wednesday’s Rasmussen poll put Obama’s approval rating at 47 percent and falling. Even a majority of Democrats — 53 percent — now oppose his version of health reform.

It’s as if Americans have chosen health care as the ground on which they’ll make their stand against this blitzkrieg offensive to install government as the dominant player in our society. Stop this, and maybe the politicians will retreat to the center.

Finley’s point – that Americans are resisting the drive to the left of Obama and the Democrats in Congress – appears to be on the mark. The left and the media were pronouncing the Republicans all but dead just a few weeks ago – and are now trying to sell the public on the premise that the Republicans are powerful enough to marshal the protests against ObamaCare. Finley thinks this unlikely.

I suspect he’s right. These are real, average Americans choosing their ground to stand and fight on. That is what is scaring the living heck out of the Democrats right now. That is why they are pulling out every trick in their dirty playbook to demonize, denigrate, dismiss or destroy the opposition.

All of which is backfiring mightily.

I have mentioned before, I think, that Ulysses S. Grant is someone I admire. He had a tenacity that had been sorely lacking in the Union armies and hung on and fought where others had retreated. (If you have not read his (completely free online) autobiography, you should. Even more highly recommended is the Lewis/Catton 3-volume biography – not free, unfortunately). 

At Spottsylvania, Grant sent a message back to Washington: “I purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” (The ‘purpose’ has been replaced with ‘propose’ in numerous internet quotes, but Catton wrote it as I have.)

That is not a bad role model at this moment. Hang on and force a retreat to the center.