Paul Krugman on the "Town Hall Mob"

Paul Krugman's column today is well worth reading. After explaining how the screaming mobs at town halls across America are "a far cry" from Norman Rockwell's "idealized American town meeting," and how he can't find "any counterpart" to this type of thing from the campaign against Social Security privatization in 2005, Krugman concludes that this is "something new and ugly" and wonders, "[w]hat's behind it?" Here's Krugman's answer:

...the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the “birther” movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.

And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers.

Does this sound familiar? It should: it’s a strategy that has played a central role in American politics ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites.

Many people hoped that last year’s election would mark the end of the “angry white voter” era in America. Indeed, voters who can be swayed by appeals to cultural and racial fear are a declining share of the electorate.

But right now Mr. Obama’s backers seem to lack all conviction, perhaps because the prosaic reality of his administration isn’t living up to their dreams of transformation. Meanwhile, the angry right is filled with a passionate intensity.

And if Mr. Obama can’t recapture some of the passion of 2008, can’t inspire his supporters to stand up and be heard, health care reform may well fail.

In short, it's time for the rest of us - those who worked our butts off to take back the Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008 - to start speaking up - and standing up - to the "birthers" and "tea partiers" and screaming angry dittoheads. If not, as Krugman warns, everything we worked for could go down the drain. Yes, it's summer, but the opponents of change aren't resting. Why are we?

P.S. For more on this subject, see here, here, here, and especially here ("White Racists Want Their America Back"). This is a battle for America, alright, and right now the crazed Catherine Crabills of the world are kicking our butts.

UPDATE: Steven Pearlstein writes that are "political terrorists" propagating "flat-out lie[s]" about health care (I'd add, about many other issues as well, particularly cap and trade). Pearlstein concludes with a wish that "If health reform is to be anyone's Waterloo, let it be theirs."