Millions of Americans oblivious to politics, probably don’t know what district they reside, and probably don’t know who their legislators are; now seem to be standing up and voicing their concerns about the proposed National Health Care Bill. They are finding out concerning details of this proposed bill through their email, facebook, twitter and other social media tools and you can certainly not turn on the news without some coverage of the upsetting situation.

For those of us political pundits out there, all of this is distressing. No one wants to see Americans reaming our legislators for something that they may or may not have had anything to do with. Yet the information coming out about the bill is understandably concerning for even those who have chosen to not participate in politics. With trillions of dollars being added to the debt each year under the new plan, and massive new taxes to be applied to everything.. Including healthcare services! Folks that have never been behind a microphone are voicing their opinions, and thousands of new blogs are cropping up authored by those both for and against.

My question, is how will the US government deal with this new sort of grassroots vocalisation? There is talk now about a national referendum by some. I personally am concerned about our legislators calling protesters of this bill “KKK” and “Dirty Mobs”.  While I am not publicly swinging a bat for or against this particular legislation, I fear what happens to our democracy and freedom of speech when those who vocalise their concerns are diminished, arrested and (some) jailed. I would hate to see something very bad occur thanks to the acceleration and distribution of information via social media.