Jonah Goldberg’s column is spot on: Democrats are panicking over health care reform, which is causing them to lash out at the average working people they’ll need if they want to keep their majority in the House:

The Democratic Party is panicking, lashing out like a cornered animal, all because its effort to take over the health care industry is coming apart like so much wet toilet paper.

Nancy Pelosi, who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself. When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured “Astroturf” stunts, she replied, “I think they’re Astroturf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”

Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protestors are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of ObamaCare, but she’s also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.

What type of evil person would try selling the notion that people who are afraid of losing their private health insurance are swastika-wearing hatemongers? What type of person has the type of imagination that allows them to utter such profanities? It’s what happens when a spoiled brat throws a hissy fit.

Most importantly, it’s what happens when We The People tell the spoiled brat that we aren’t interested in the crap that she’s peddling.

It’s also what happens when big dreams vanish into thin air, when people start registering their disapproval with pollsters:

Unlike most polling these day, Democracy Corps does try to maintain a semblance of credibility and looks at likely voters instead of all registered voters. And among their pool of likely voters, 53% of those likely to vote in 2010 think Obama is too liberal. The same number think he’s going to raise taxes. 55% think he doesn’t deliver on his promises.

Oh, and Republicans lead Democrats by 13 points on the issue of who will be a better steward of our tax dollars.

SUMMARY: Democracy Corps polling shows that the American people don’t trust President Obama to keep his promises at the same time that like voters don’t trust Democrats to spend our tax dollars wisely.

That’s the worst possible set of poll results Democrats could find at this crucial juncture in the health care debate. Why would people give Congress the go ahead to manipulate one-sixth of the U.S. economy when they think Congress will waste that money?

Rather than listen to their constituents, Democrats are being given special instructions on handling the supposedly angry mobs:

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,” Messina said, according to an official who attended the meeting.

The hourlong session was the last opportunity for Democratic leaders and the White House to prepare senators for what will be a crucial month in shaping public opinion on health care. With no final legislation to promote, senators have expressed concern about dealing with questions and criticisms about the almost $1 trillion overhaul. The spate of confrontational town hall meetings have raised the stakes.

“They are just helping us understand the fringe that is trying to mess up our meetings,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Sen. Reid is full of it. Axelrod’s gang of thugs are teaching senators how to be Chicagoland thugs. This arrogance is disgusting. Never should We The People put up with a bunch of thugs whose entire agenda is to get their way by using violence and intimidation rather than by winning on the intellectual battlefield.

It’s accurate to say that the tactics that Axelrod and Messina are advocating are the tactics that were used during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

This administration is quickly becoming exposed as a collection of Chicagoland thugs. That can’t help after President Obama ran as a post-partisan politician and a healer of all divisions. I never bought into that image. Now I’m being vindicated for doubting that image, as are many others.

Technorati: Angry Mobs, Union Thugs, Violence, Swastikas, Speaker Pelosi, Harry Reid, David Axelrod, Elitists, Democrats

Cross-posted at California Conservative