There have been some very good protests about Obama’s healthcare plan that will spend less and magically make us all healthier (even the liberal Mickey Kaus on Slate.com is questioning that proposition). 

Apparently, Nancy Pelosi thinks that if you are too well dressed, you shouldn’t get to talk to your congressman or go to the townhall meetings.

I believe in civility in politics, and if I went to one of these meetings, I’d really like to have my representative explain how insuring people will decrease our costs and how dramatically increasing taxes will get us out of the recession (the Congressional Budget Office is not buying it).

But that said, the most central fact to all political discourse in this country is that, usually, 97% of everyone doesn’t show up.  You can see it in our political debates and in our voting patterns.  So, when someone does show up, then I think we’d better consider that in context–that is, it’s out of the ordinary.  And because I believe we’re better off with it, we’d better welcome it, even if we don’t agree 100%.  It’s certainly worth paying attention.

And now… the White House is collecting names of people who are raising questions about these healthcare plans.  Wow.  The White House is a political operation, but it’s also part of the government, guys. 

If you don’t like this healthcare stuff, go here:  http://joinpatientsfirst.com/

And get on the boat:  August 11th–see upcoming events.