What exactly are they opposing???

Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein both make excellent points today. First, Matt Yglesias argues that Sen. Baucus is primarily to blame for the slow pace of progress on health reform...

There’s a reason, after all, why the President wanted the process to be much further along at this point. And I think a big part of that reason is that it’d be much easier to get people engaged and mobilized if there was a thing “the health care bill” that people were supposed to be getting engaged and mobilized about. By contrast, those most full of passionate intensity on the other side are basically prepared to oppose reform sight unseen. But without knowing much about what the content of “reform” is or who it is who’s backing “reform” it’s hard to know what to say about it. At the moment, progressives are simultaneously trying to impact the shape of “reform” (reasonable public option, reasonably generous subsidies and minimum benefits packages) while also trying to push for “reform” to win out against the opponents of “reform.” If the various congressional leaders ever work out what “reform” is, then no matter how disappointed folks may be with some aspects of it, I’m pretty sure just about everyone will find themselves pushing for it.

But by dragging out the process of defining what the proposal is this long, congress in general—but mostly Baucus in particular—have guaranteed a sort of asymmetrical summer.

Ezra Klein shows that according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll the specifics of the health reform are generally popular while the administration's plan isn't. Pretty normal considering that poll after poll shows that progressive policies are often very popular with the public, while the names of those policies (welfare, universal health-care, even single-payer) are not. The right cannot play the game fairly, so they turn to demonizing, lying, and just plain shouting to win.

But what both posts reminded me of, is that there isn't A BILL TO OPPOSE. The fascistic tea-bagging, fear-mongering hooligans who are shouting down elected representatives are opposing what exactly? There isn't a bill to oppose. Which is bad precisely because the big unknown feeds into that old paranoid style of American politics. What they are opposing isn't health reform, cause they don't know a thing about it. So, what are they opposing?

Liberals always claim that folks are opposing the 'changes' happening. The decline of our social connectedness, the rapid growth of minority populations, increasing social equality, the decline of the stable two-parent family, global competition for jobs, the rise of foreign powers, the decline of the industrial state, the rise of the consumer-service oriented economy, stagnating wages, etc. Liberals argue these 'game changers' are pushing people toward xenophobic paranoia, religious revivalism, and political/religious extremism. So, a liberal would argue, that many of these oh so angry and paranoid folks are really opposing these changes when they talk of immigration, health reform, taxes, welfare, etc. Which might explain why the states that are 'suffering' the most at the hands of these changes are the politically conservative communities where racism, xenophobia, religious revivalism, and reactionary politics thrives.

I wonder what a conservative would say? Maybe that 'the people' (never trust anyone who uses the phrase 'the people') love free markets and hate government. Or, maybe that's too simplistic. Maybe I should watch Fox News and report back. It seems like most of the conservative talking points on the blogosphere are just fabrications and prevarications.