It might also be compelling if the only options were to leave people to die in the street or pass a massive transformation bill that nobody has read because it doesn’t exist in any final form yet. We already passed emergency legislation providing subsidies for workers to continue their coverage under CORBA on top of expanding unemployment benefits at both the state and federal levels.

Your conjecture that most people opposing the legislation doesn’t really warrant a response, but your impression that most Americans are in favour of the proposed reforms is somewhat dated. Zogby pegged opposition at 50-42, Quinnipac got 52-39 last week and Rasmussen showed a decline yesterday to 53-42 from 49-47 in their previous survey.

Support for reform is strong. Support for this reform isn’t.

Honestly, I think a lot of the protests are excessive, but they are fairly tame compared to the protests we’ve seen over the past eight years. And they are countered by very well financed groups – Organizing from America, which has a mailing list of millions and the direct backing of the president; Health Care for American Now, which reportedly got a five million dollar pledge from George Soros; the SEIU which boast membership in the millions and had at least one local urge it’s member to”come out in strong numbers to drown out their [oppenents of reform] voices.”; PhRMA, which ironically is often said to be in bed with Republicans, recently pledged $150 million in pro-reform advertisements.

In the end, most of the anger is that the administration tried pushing a vote before the August recess. What chance did that allow for anyone’s voice to be heard?