Colorado Progressive

Yesterday I was listening to Ryan Warner of Colorado Matters interview Bob Loevy, a political scientist at Colorado College, and something Loevy said struck me.

The caucus electorate is a very exotic one. These are people who tend to be dedicated members of their political party, uh, party regulars, party loyalists. In the Democratic party they tend to be more liberal than the Democratic party generally. In the Republican party they tend to be more conservative than the Republican party generally.

And that’s when it dawned on me that, probably, the same can be said for protestors. By and large, people who take time to picket a government office or set up on a street corner with political signage do not reflect mainstream Americans.

Health Care Reform Protestors (image via Wikimedia Commons)

This is purely anecdotal conjecture, but Loevy’s observation about the caucus goer confirms for me the veracity of my statement about protestors. And I’m glad that it does, because the whole realization explains for me, at least in part, the vitriol and malevolence we’re seeing today in protests surrounding health care reform.

Most Americans are not as angry and mean as some of the protestors we see on the cable news, just like most Americans do not attend party caucuses. Most Americans likely also have strong feelings, one way or another, about health care reform. Most Americans, I am hopeful, still believe there’s room for respectful discussion, or even respectful argument, without such demonization of differing view points. But the protest crowd, like the caucus electorate, is a very exotic one, and more extreme in its beliefs than the party generally.